The Only Exception
by ThexHushxSound
Summary: The Battle is on Between Organization XIII and the rest of the worlds, and, as usual, Sora and Katy are caught in the middle. Heartless are stronger, Nobodies are meaner, and relationships are tested in the last installment of the Key's Keeper Trilogy.
1. Day 1: Took the Words Out of My Mouth

**Authors Note:**** I'm baaaaaack! Did you miss me? So, get ready 'cause this is the LAST story in The Key's Keeper Trilogy. There will be action, adventure, romance, and pure unadulterated randomness. First off, I'd like to thank my lovely reviewers: Deadly Papegoja, soraroxas365, ultima-owner, SpringBorn, Wormo the Green Lantern, D M Ash, 1st class Soldier Girl13, and CatchingForRain for reviewing the last chapter of TBOMH. You are all awesome. I'd also like to thank Nightmare Mazter and 1st class Soldier Girl13 for adding me and/or my stories to their favorite stories and favorite authors list. You are also awesome. And as per usual, thanks to all of you who read but don't take the time to review. I'd really love it if you'd share your opinions with me, since despite popular belief, I DO care what you think. Alrighty, we're picking up right where KH2 picks up. Hope you guys like it!**

Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to, I do not own anything related to Kingdom Hearts. I only own Katy, My wonderful OC :)

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**Recap**

The island was dark and the shadows casted were threatening. A tall man in a black cloak lounged lazily on a log, looking up as a shorter boy, also in a black cloak appeared from a dark corridor.

"You have arrived. I've been to see him...He looks a lot like you." The taller man stated.

"Who are you?" The shorter boy asked

"I'm all that's left...Or maybe I am all there ever was."

"I meant your name."

"My name is of no importance. What about you? Do you remember your true name?" The taller man inquired.

"My true name is..." But he had no answer. Then everything went black.

_Sora woke up on the beach on Destiny Islands after a nightmare. Lying down to try and sleep once more his eyes met a pair of equally blue ones and he jumped up, startled before laughing;_

"_Gimme a break Kai-"_

"_Giving up already?" Riku taunted as he and Sora raced down the beach_

_Watching the sunset the night of the raft launch, Riku inquired;_

"_If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?"_

_Scribbling on the wall of the secret place, a deep, unknown voice spoke to Sora;_

"_This world has been connected."_

"_Wh-Whose there?"_

"_Tied to the darkness..."_

_Sitting on the pier with at sunset, Kairi turned to Sora;_

"_Sora, don't ever change."_

_With Riku the night the Heartless attacked;_

"_The door has opened." Just before the silver-haired boy sunk into the darkness_

_Fighting the large nightmare shadow;_

"_You understand nothing."_

_With Kairi in the secret place just before she vanished;_

"_So..ra.."_

Roxas woke with a groan and sat up slowly.

"Another dream about him..." He muttered to himself, before opening the window and looking out at the Twilight Town skyline.

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He met Hayner, Pence, and Olette at the Usual Spot, zoning in and out of the conversation.

"Man, doesn't it tick you off?" Hayner asked.

"Yeah, that's just wrong." Pence agreed.

"Seifer's gone too far this time." Olette sighed.

The three looked over at Roxas who was still in his own world. He looked up, feeling their gazes and nodded. Hayner stood from his spot on a pile of crates and began to pace.

"I mean, it's true that stuff's been stolen around town. And we've got a score to settle with Seifer and everything. So if he wants to think we did it, I can't really blame him. See...that's not what really bugs me. What REALLY bugs me is that he's goin' around tellin' everybody we're the thieves! Now the whole town and their mothers are treating us like the Klepto Club! Have you ever been this ticked off before in your life? 'Cause I haven't. Nuh-uh, NEVER! Now...what to do."

Hayner turned to Olette and Pence and both were at a loss. He looked over at Roxas, expectantly and the teen shrugged;

"Uh...well...We could find the real thieves. That would set the record straight."

"Hey, that sounds fun." Pence agreed

"What about Seifer?" Hayner demanded

"First, we gotta clear out names. Once we find the real culprit, everyone will get off our backs." Roxas reasoned.

"Well-" Hayner began but was cut off by Pence.

"Oh, no! They're gone! Our _ are gone!" he exclaimed. He clutched at his throat, alarmed that he couldn't say the word.

"All our _, gone?" Hayner asked, also unable to speak the word.

"You can't say _? Why not?" Olette cried, gasping when she realized she couldn't either.

"But you do understand what I'm saying, right? Our _ are gone!" Pence repeated

"Stolen..." Roxas muttered "And not just the _. The word _! They stole it, too!"

"What kinda thief is that?" Hayner scoffed, crossing his arms. "Seifer could never have pulled that off."

"Yeah." Roxas agreed

"All right, time for some recon." Hayner said grimly gesturing for the others to follow him.

Roxas began to run after his friends, but was suddenly plagued by dizziness. He fell to his knees and blacked out.

"_His heart is returning. Doubtless he'll awaken very soon."_

Roxas groaned and opened his eyes slowly, wincing and quickly shutting them against the sunlight and the pain in his head. From somewhere above him a voice was speaking to him.

"C'mon, kid. You're okay. Get up."

Roxas opened his eyes and found himself staring into a pair of sea-foam green ones. The eyes belonged to a girl of about 16 with long lavender colored hair who currently had a smirk on her pretty face.

"Looks like you got into a fight with the floor...and it won." The girl snickered, holding out a hand to help him up.

Roxas accepted the help, staring at her intently.

"Have we met before?"

"Nope." She answered cheerfully, resting her hands on her hips as he dusted himself off.

"Are you sure? You look very familiar."

"I'm absolutely sure I've never met you. My names Katy."

"Roxas."

"It's nice to meet you Roxas." Katy said over her shoulder as she walked out of the Usual Spot and around the corner."

"Wait!" Roxas protested, running after her, only to crash into Olette.

He apologized, helping her up and following her into town where Hayner and Pence were waiting by the armor shop.

He kept an eye out for Katy, but it was as though she'd vanished into thin air.

"Let's get this investigation underway." Pence said, ready to find the thief responsible for framing them.

"Yo, Roxas. Never thought you would do such a rotten thing..." The shop owner said, shaking his head at them.

"We didn't steal anything, all right?" Roxas snapped, getting annoyed with the constant accusations.

"I'd like to believe you, but...Who else would steal that stuff?"

"What stuff?" Roxas demanded

"As if you didn't know. Hey, I'm not gonna tell you. Go ask at the accessory shop." The owner said, clearly not buying their story.

"Go on Roxas—ask her." Hayner said, referring to the woman who owned the accessory shop.

So Roxas made his way to the shop across the plaza and was greeted by the young woman.

"Oh, it's you, Roxas...Please don't let me down. You used to be one of my favorite customers."

"I'm not a thief!" Roxas exclaimed, agitated.

"Okay..." The woman replied, still wary.

"It's no fun having everyone suspecting me ya know."

"Then you've got to find a way to clear your name. The woman at the candy shop is pretty disappointed, too."

Roxas and the others made their way to the candy shop, although they were pretty sure it this point that convincing everyone of their innocence wasn't going to work.

"Roxas?" The old woman at the candy store called as he walked up.

"Did they steal something from you, too?" Roxas asked, already anticipating the answer.

"Oh, my, yes. Something important." The woman replied

"Just so you know, we didn't do it."

"I believe you." The woman smiled, causing the teens to sigh in relief.

"Thanks for that, ma'am. So what did they take from you?"

"My _" The woman answered, also unable to say the word. "My precious _."

"Looks like the culprit is going around stealing _." Hayner figured

"And not just _, but the word _, too." Roxas added.

"This isn't your average thief." Pence agreed.

"I wonder if Seifer would know anything about this." Olette wondered aloud.

"We gotta talk to him. C'mon, to the sandlot!" Roxas said, taking off towards the Seifer's usual hangout.

When the four teens reached the sandlot, Seifer's cronies, Fuu, Vivi, and Rai were already present.

"Thieves." Fuu accused, pointing at them.

"That was low, y'know?" Rai agreed

Vivi pulled his hat down over his eyes and shook his head.

"Oh yeah?" Hayner retorted

"Nice comeback there, blondie." Seifer said with an eye roll as he entered the sandlot.

"What did you say?" Hayner demanded, taking a fighting stance.

"You can give us back the _ now." Seifer ordered, ignoring Hayner completely.

"Yeah, you're the only ones who would take it, y'know!" Rai added.

"That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers. So what did you do? Burn it? Ha, not that we need some _ to prove that you're losers."

"Replay." Fuu suggested

Seifer laughed

"Now you're talking!" He agreed, him and his "Disciplinary Committee" taking fighting stances to match Hayner's.

"I guess if you get on your knees and beg, MAYBE I'll let it slide."

As though he was going to comply, Roxas stepped forward in front of Seifer and kneeled, causing him and his cronies to laugh.

"Roxas!" Hayner protested loudly

Roxas ignored him, his attention focused on the three struggle weapons in front of him. He grabbed one and swung at Seifer who dodged and grabbed one for himself.

"Roxas, focus!" Pence called out

Roxas nodded and proceeded to struggle with Seifer, attacking when he had an opening and dodging when he didn't. Finally, it was over, Roxas emerging victorious. Fuu and Rai immediately jumped in front of their leader to protect him...and his ego...from being damaged any further.

"Uh, Seifer's not feeling so hot, y'know?" Rai lied

"Tournament decides." Fuu agreed.

Pence snickered and snapped a picture, flashing Roxas a thumbs up.

That was around the time then the mysterious, silver, _thing_ rushed past, stealing his camera.

"What was that?" Hayner demanded

"The thief!" Olette figured, running after it, the others following.

Separating from his friends, Roxas followed the thief to the woods and tracked it through the trees until he reached The Old Mansion. Then a voice that seemed to come from the thing itself spoke into Roxas's head:

"_We have come for you, my liege." _

"Huh?" Roxas murmured, confused and wondering if he imagined it.

A zipper, which was in place of the creature's mouth, unzipped and it lunged at him. Roxas tried to damage the thing with his struggle club, but no avail.

He was just about to give up when a soft ping, followed by what looked like computer code surrounded his weapon, turning it into a key-shaped sword. Which immediately began to pull him in the direction of the creature as though it had a mind of it's own.

"What is this thing?" He asked aloud

He didn't expect to get an answer.

"Don't question it, just kill the dusk!" Katy called out to him as she dropped behind the creature, which he guessed was the dusk, and drew her own short swords, which were also shaped like keys.

Together, the two of them defeated the dusk quickly and it exploded, leaving the stolen pictures in its wake.

"That was a close call. Thank-" Roxas began to thank Katy, only to find that the elusive girl had once again vanished.

The key-shaped sword also disappeared, leaving Roxas with nothing to do but pick up the stolen pictures and return to the Usual Spot to meet his friends.

"What's this?" Hayner asked, looking at a picture of Roxas and the Armor shop owner.

"I was his first customer after he took over the shop. So we took a picture together." Roxas explained.

"It's a really nice photo." Olette said.

She gasped realizing exactly what she said.

"Hey! You just said "photo"!" Pence exclaimed

"So what about the picture thief?" Hayner asked Roxas

"Not much to say. The pictures were just laying there." he lied, not wanting to tell them about the dusk...or the strange girl that helped him.

"Then how do we prove we weren't the ones who took 'em?" Hayner groaned, looking at a picture of Roxas and the woman from the accessory shop.

"It's a GIRL" Hayner snickered

"You look happy, Roxas." Olette teased

"Do not." Roxas protested feebly as they laughed

"So, like, does anyone notice that all the stolen pictures are of Roxas?" Pence asked

"Oh! So that's why everyone thought it was us." Olette realized

"You mean Seifer didn't go around accusing us after all?" Hayner asked.

He was ignored

"So they're really all of me?" Roxas asked Pence

"Yep. See?" He replied, showing Roxas the rest of the pictures. "Wouldn't it be weird it the thief wanted to steal the real Roxas or something?"

"C'mon, get serious. Why would anyone wanna steal a bonehead like Roxas?" Hayner joked

"Oh, thanks!" Roxas laughed, the others joining in.

They all paused as the clock struck six and the four teens all left for home. All too soon Roxas was falling asleep, already anticipating another dream.

He wasn't disappointed.

"_Where...am I?" A voice called into the dark._

"_Whose there? Who are you?" Roxas called back._

_He got no answer._

_**Restoration at 12%**_

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**5 REVIEWS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER PLEASE!**** It's already written and ready to be posted, so the more you review, the faster it'll be up :)**


	2. Day 2: Pickpockets and Beaches

**Authors Note****: Gee, that was fast! You can thank: Chimichar, Shimmermist, SUNTAN140, SexyZexy, and soraroxas365 for the fast update, I think we can all agree that they rock. Also a shout out to: Chimichar, Shimmermist, Chinesebaby14, and SexyZexy for checking those wonderful boxes. And thanks to all of you who read but didn't review. So here's the next chapter! **

Disclaimer: I still do not own Kingdom Hearts. Just Katy, my OC :)

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Back at the Old Mansion, DiZ sat in the library's basement in front of the many computer screens when the Cloaked Man entered;

"Organization miscreants...They've found us." DiZ sighed

"But...why would the Nobodies steal photographs?" The cloaked man asked

"Both are nothing but data to them. The fools could never tell the difference." DiZ ridiculed, rubbing at his temples. "We are running out of time. Naminé must make haste."

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Roxas tossed and turned, dreams of _him_ plaguing him once more

_In Traverse Town just before Sora met Katy;_

"_Where am I? What happened to my home? Riku? Kai-"_

_Meeting Katy;_

"_Thanks. My name's Katy by the way. Katy Tannith."_

_With Leon just before they fought;_

"_Who are you?"_

"_They will come at you out of nowhere as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade."_

_Meeting Donald and Goofy;_

"_Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel."_

"_Sora, Katy, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."_

"_Donald Duck."_

"_Name's Goofy."_

"_Katy."_

"_I'm Sora. I'll go with you guys."_

_In the Second District hotel after the fight with Leon;_

"_The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade."_

_With Aerith in another room in the hotel;_

"_That's right, The Keyblade"_

_Back again with Sora;_

"_So...this is the key?"_

_With the villains, discussing Sora and Katy;_

_But the children are a problem. They found one of the keyholes."_

Roxas jerked awake, shaken by the dream. He stared down at his hands, remembering the strange weapon from yesterday.

"A key...blade?"

He was also a little perturbed to find that the girl he met yesterday, Katy, was also in his dreams. Did she know him? He planned to keep an eye out for her today, he had questions he wanted answered.

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Still reeling from the dream he had, Roxas was unusually quiet while Hayner, Olette, and Pence chatted amongst themselves. He was brought back to reality when Pence told him to hurry up. He hadn't even realized the others had left. He followed Pence outside the Usual Spot where the others were waiting impatiently.

"We're going to Market Street." Hayner informed them all before taking off, the other three following.

Roxas caught up to the other three the next street over. They were looking at the poster advertizing the annual struggle match.

"Just two days to go." Hayner said excitedly, turning to Roxas. "You and I have to make the finals. That way, no matter who wins, the four of us split the prize!"

"Okay, You're on." Roxas agreed.

"You two are gonna clean up." Pence said, giving them a thumbs up.

"Go get 'em." Olette added, smiling encouragingly.

"It's a promise." Hayner declared as he and Roxas did that fist pound thing that guys do. "Now down to business. One ticket to the beach is 900 munny. How much for the four of us?"

"3600 munny." Olette answered, being the more studious of the four.

"And 300 each to spend there. What's that for all of us?" Hayner asked the brown haired girl

"1200 munny. A total of 4800 munny." Olette replied, doing the calculations.

"To spend on what?" Roxas asked

"Pretzels of course! What else is there?" Hayner said, grinning.

Okay, just want to point out here that if a pretzel is 300 munny, then there must be some serious inflation going on in Twilight Town. Just saying.

"Well, there's always watermelon." Roxas pointed out.

"Too pricey. They're 2000 munny apiece."

I rest my case.

"Pretzels it is." Roxas agreed.

"So where were we?" Hayner asked

"We need 4800 munny altogether. But all we have is..." Olette started, looking around at the rest of them.

"I've got 800." Pence said

"...650." Olette added

"150. Sorry." Roxas apologized

"That's 1600 munny! We need another 3200." Hayner said. "Let's find ourselves some odd jobs and earn some dough!" We have 'till the train leaves to earn 800 munny each! Meet at the station with cash in hand!

Gee, he's pretty bossy for someone who didn't have any munny in the first place...

"Didn't he say he had it covered?" Pence asked as Hayner ran off.

"Whatever. Those pretzels are sounding pretty good." Roxas said, suddenly hungry.

So on that note, they all set off to make some cash.

After about an hour of mail delivering and poster sticking, Roxas made his way to Station Plaza where the others were waiting.

"All present and accounted for?" Hayner asked.

The others nodded and pence asked;

"What have we got?"

"Just this." Roxas said holding out his share

"Nice going, Roxas!" Hayner exclaimed, impressed

"I knew you would do it!" Olette smiled and then continued, "Nice work, everyone. Added to what we started with, we now have...Ta da! 5000 munny."

"Sweet!" Hayner crowed as Olette handed the pouch with their earnings to Roxas. "Let's get tickets!" she said, running off with Pence.

"We can't be together forever, so we'd better make the time we do have something to remember." Hayner said, more to himself that Roxas.

"Huh?" Roxas asked, a bit perturbed by his friend's sudden deepness.

"Gotcha!" Hayner cried, snapping out of it and running over to join Olette and Pence inside the station.

Roxas shook his head and went to join them, when suddenly something hit him in the legs, causing him to trim over it and smack his head on the pavement. Rubbing his busted lip, Roxas looked up and jumped when he saw the cloaked figure standing above him. The figure grabbed him by the arm, roughly pulling him up.

"What-?" Roxas gasped, wincing at the person's grip.

"Roxas! Three minutes!" Hayner called out.

And as soon as it was there, the figure was gone. Roxas shook his head, blaming his lack of sleep.

"Okay!" He called to his friends, running after them.

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"Four students." Hayner told the girl behind the ticket counter.

"Roxas, the munny!" Pence called to him as Roxas dug in his pocket.

"Wait, No!" he exclaimed, realizing the money was gone.

That man, the one who grabbed him...

"He must have taken it!" Roxas muttered to himself, running back to the doors.

"Where are you going?" Olette asked

"Remember when I fell? I had the money before that. I bet that guy took it!" Roxas explained

"Guy?" Hayner asked.

"He couldn't have gotten that far..." Roxas trailed off when he saw the weird looks they were giving him.

"What are you talking about?" Hayner asked again. "There was no guy."

"But...There wasn't...Really?"

The others however had turned their attentions away from him when the train whistle sounded and it left the station.

"Oh, boy." Pence groaned, upset that they'd worked for nothing.

"There was really no one there?" Roxas muttered to himself as he trudged after the others to find something else to do.

None of them saw the lavender-haired girl as she watched them from a distance.

As she watched them leave, Katy groaned. This gig was supposed to be easy. She wasn't supposed to have to worry about Organization XIII members killing Roxas in his sleep, but between the dusks and DiZ all worked up about actual members being able to infiltrate "Twilight Town", she had her work cut out for her. Sighing as she felt a major headache coming on, Katy retreated to the Old Mansion. Roxas and his friends were probably going to get ice cream and sit on the clock tower anyway. Nothing exciting. Besides, she deserved a break. She hadn't slept in days...

Katy was right; the four teens were able to scrape up enough munny to get themselves some sea-salt ice cream to eat while they hung out at the clock tower. Roxas, however, was deep in thought and his ice cream began to become less frozen.

"It's melting." Olette pointed out.

"Sorry." Roxas apologized, absentmindedly.

"Cheer up already." Hayner drawled.

"That was definitely weird though." Roxas protested

"Strange." Olette added.

"You said it." Roxas replied, zoning out once more. "Can you feel Sora." He repeated the words the cloaked man said to him.

"_Can you feel Sora?"_

_**Restoration at 28%**_

"_Naminé, hurry."_

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**A/N:**** Sorry, I know it's a little on the shorter side. There wasn't much dialogue in this one and I didn't want to add too much filler. 5 reviews please and I'll post the next chapter :)**


	3. Day 3: Dive to the Heart

**Authors Note****: You Guys are awesome! Thanks so much to: SexyZexy, ShimmerMist, soraroxas365, Chimichar, SpringBorn, 1st class Soldier Girl13, and kingdomdisney for reviewing. You rock :) Also a bit thanks to: antaurilover685, 1st class Soldier Girl13, and kingdomdisney for checking the wonderful boxes. You rock too. And of course thanks to those of you who read but didn't review, you guys are awesome too and please consider reviewing so I know how I'm doing! Alright, here's chapter 3! It's my favorite so far :)**

Disclaimer: I still don't have ownership of anything Kingdom Hearts related. If I ever do, You'll be the 1st to know. I just own Katy, my OC

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"Is it really that hard to make a beach?" The cloaked man asked DiZ, tossing the kid's bag of munny into the air and catching it.

"We'd be giving the enemy another entry point."

"What about this?" The man asked again, gesturing to the munny pouch.

"We could always buy some sea-salt ice cream." DiZ laughed.

"I'm more of a chocolate girl myself. And thanks for not making the beach, DiZ. It's the least you could have done. That Hayner kid is kind of cute, it would have been nice to see him shirtless, give me some sort of entertainment." Katy said, striding into the computer room.

"Hello. Katyana." DiZ greeted her, the cloaked man giving her a nod.

"DiZ, Cloaky. But seriously, folks. One shirtless guy, that's all I was asking for."

"So when your boyfriend wakes up, ask him to strip for you. I'm sure he'd be happy to do it." Cloaky replied in a bored tone.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Seriously, my sides are splitting right now. So, about that ice cream..." Katy asked, changing the subject.

"Objects from that town must be kept out of the real world." DiZ explained. "You can delete that pouch."

Katy groaned and the cloaked man nodded, tucking the bag into his cloak.

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Dreams again. They were getting old.

_In Atlantica with King Triton;_

"_As the key bearer, you must already know, one must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds._

_With Ariel in her grotto;_

"_So many places I want to see. I know I'll get there someday."_

_With Phil and Hercules at the Coliseum;_

"_Thus I hereby dub thee junior heroes."_

"_Hey What do ya mean junior heroes?"_

"_You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero."_

_With Aladdin in Agrabah after defeating Jafar;_

"_I...I wish...for your freedom, Genie!_

"_Al!"_

_In Halloween Town after defeating Oogie Boogie;_

"_Sally, Why didn't I listen to you?"_

"_Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time we'll do it together."_

_In the Monstro after Riku kidnapped Katy and Pinocchio;_

"_Or are you too cool to play now that you have the Keyblade?"_

"_Riku, what are you doing here? Did you find Kai-"_

_In Neverland after defeating Captain Hook;_

"_I can't believe it. I really flew. Wail 'til I tell Kai-. I wonder if she'll believe me. Probably not._

_At the Coliseum with Cloud;_

"_I'm searching too."_

"_For your light? Don't loose sight of it."_

_In the Hundred Acre Wood;_

"_Sora, where are you going?"_

"_I'm gonna go look for my friends. They're waiting for me."_

_Back in Neverland again, when they first arrived;_

"_Where are Donald, Goofy, and Katy?"_

"_You should stop asking about them and start asking...about her."_

_Visions of a man clothes all in red sitting in front of a computer and a blonde girl standing in front of a large flower-like pod. Then the pod and the room she was in disappeared and only the girl was left._

"_Who are you?" Roxas asked._

_She turned and smiled at him._

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Roxas woke from his third restless night and swore he saw the blonde from his dream standing a ways from his bed.

"Huh?" He did a double take and she was gone.

Roxas dressed and walked to the Usual Spot where he Found a note from Hayner;

_Meet at the station. Today's the day we hit the beach—and don't sweat about the munny!_

Roxas shrugged and made his way to Station Heights. He waved to Olette and Pence who grinned at him

"Hey." Pence said with a grin

"Morning." Olette smiled

They strode towards him and suddenly time froze...literally.

"Huh?" Roxas exclaimed, running towards them, only to skid to a stop to avoid hitting a blonde girl who appeared in front of him.

The girl from his dream.

"Hello, Roxas." She said sweetly, arms clasped behind her back.

"Hi..." Roxas replied, confused. Did he know her? He didn't think so. "And you are-"

She held up a hand and cut him off.

"I wanted to meet you at least once."

"Me?" he asked, still confused.

"Yes, you." She answered, simply turning around and walking away around the corner.

Before he could pursue her, time unfroze and Olette and Pence continued walking towards him as though nothing happened.

"Olette dragged me to go shopping." Pence groaned.

"Hey, do you wanna come with us?" Olette offered.

"Um, uhh, wait...did you just see that..." Roxas stammered, still a little gobsmacked.

"He's stalling." Pence said, not blaming his friend in the slightest.

Olette laughed and nodded

"Very well, then. We'll see you later, Roxas."

"Y-Yeah." Roxas agreed, still deep in thought. "Did she go to that haunted mansion?" He asked himself, taking off towards Tram Plaza.

When he got there he caught a glimpse of her by the entrance to the woods. Tearing after her he skidded to a stop when a black portal opened up and three of those creatures, dusks Katy had called them, came out and grabbed at him.

"Lemme go!" Roxas yelled, shaking on off of his arm and running away from them as fast as he could.

He didn't know if they were still behind him, he just kept on running. He didn't even realize he'd reached the sandlot until Seifer called out to him;

"Hey! Chicken-wuss!

Apparently the dusks were following him because they entered the Sandlot seconds after.

"Whose that?" Fuu asked, taking a stance

"I dunno, but they've already crossed the line." Seifer growled, also preparing to fight. "Find a weapon." He called to Roxas, who grabbed a struggle bat off the ground nearby.

He fought, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to fight them without that key-shaped sword. Sure enough they had Seifer, Rai, and Fuu surrounded before he knew it.

"Not good..." he muttered, looking for a way out of this.

"That's when he realized that time must have stopped again. None of the others were moving. The dusks advanced upon him and it didn't look like he was going to be getting out of here in one piece.

"Roxas! Use the Keyblade!" Someone called to him.

He looked around wildly and there was the blonde from before, standing on a balcony. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to summon said Keyblade and the dusks were closing in. He threw his arms in front of his face to block the blow. There was a flash of white light and he was pretty sure he was dead. Instead he found himself standing on a stained glass platform in surrounded by darkness. Three weapons appeared before him and he grabbed one to defend himself if needed. The Sword he grabbed promptly turned into the Keyblade. As though an unspoken cue had been given, the dusks appeared once more. This time he was ready for them. He disposed of them quickly and went through the door that appeared. He ran up a long flight of stained glass steps, getting rid of the occasional dusk along the way and went through yet another door. When he saw what was in the next room, he wished he hadn't. A HUGE, heavily armored, ninja looking creature was waiting for him. And apparently he was supposed to fight it. After deciding that jumping off the platform in an attempt to escape was not a good idea, Roxas took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and proceeded to beat the crap out of the thing. It took awhile and a lot of fancy combo tricks he didn't even know he knew but finally the creature died, exploding into pieces. Unfortunately this caused the platform to explode as well and Roxas fell into the dark abyss below. Batting away the wisps of, well, darkness that seemed to want to consume him, Roxas felt someone take hold of his hand and pull. There was another flash of white light and he was suddenly in a strange looking white room with the girl from earlier. He tried to say something but she stopped him.

"My name is Naminé." She paused for a moment before asking "Roxas, do you remember your true name?"

He was about to ask her why everyone seemed to be asking him that question when suddenly a familiar figure in a black cloak grabbed her arm.

"Say no more, Naminé."

"But if no one tells him, Roxas will-" She tried to protest.

"It's best he doesn't know the truth." The figure interrupted, firmly

"Hey! You're that pickpocket!" Roxas exclaimed, realizing where he'd seen the man before.

The man said nothing. He opened a portal with a flick of his wrist and pushed Roxas through it, causing him to black out. That seemed to be happening to him a lot lately.

He came around, finding himself on the ground in the sandlot. He could hear Rai talking from somewhere near him;

"Hey, Seifer! Strike a pose, y'know."

"How's this?" Seifer asked, smugly

"That's perfect, y'know! How about one more y'know?"

Roxas got up and saw that Fuu had a camera and was snapping pictures of Seifer.

"What's that for?" he asked

"Keepsake." Fuu answered.

"Those freaks in white jumpsuits are gone, y'know?"

"Cakewalk." Fuu added with a wave of her hand.

"What were those things?" Roxas asked, although he already sort of knew the answer.

"Outsiders, that's what. And if they don't wise up to the rules around here, I might have to take "disciplinary measures.""

"Oh yeah, Seifer's always looking after the town, y'know?"

Roxas nodded absentmindedly and felt someone burning a hole into his head with their glare. Turning to his right he saw Hayner, Olette, and Pence and Hayner was glowering at him. With a scoff, the blonde turned and ran off, the other two in tow.

"Wait up!" Roxas called, taking off after them.

"Hey! No chickening out of the tournament tomorrow!" Seifer called out to him.

Honestly, the struggle was the last thing on his mind. So many weird thing's were happening to him lately that he really hadn't given it a second thought.

**

* * *

**

When he got back to the Usual Spot, the others were already there eating ice cream.

"So...you hung out with Seifer's gang today?" Pence asked, sounding a bit offended.

"N-no...It's not like that." Roxas protested. "Oh, yeah, how was the beach? Wasn't that today?" He asked trying to change the subject.

"We didn't go. It wouldn't be the same without you, right?" Olette replied, smiling sadly.

"...Sorry." Roxas mumbled "Hey...how 'bout we go tomorrow? We could get those pretzels and-"

"I promised I'd be somewhere." Hayner interrupted

"Ohh...Oh!" Roxas said, realizing what he was talking about.

Hayner gave him a long look before scoffing

"I'm outta here."

He left, the others following, leaving Roxas alone. Between letting down his friends and all the weird occurrences that happened to him today, he felt lousy and completely exhausted. Shuffling home, he hoped things would be better tomorrow...and that he could actually get some sleep tonight.

_**Restoration at 48%**_

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**_**A/N****: 10 reviews till the next chapter this time. I'll post it as soon as they come in :)**


	4. Day 4: An Interesting Struggle Match

**Authors Note: Okay...not quite 10 reviews but it _is_ Wednesday, so here is an update! Thanks to: SexyZexy, ShimmerMist, soraroxas365, TheDarkprincess15, 1st class Soldier Girl13, lunermaster54, and kingdomdisney for reviewing. You guys rock. Also, thanks again to: lunermaster54 for adding TOE to story/author alert. And thanks to all of you who read, but didn't review :) Okey dokey so, here is chapter 4! hope you like it!**

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything Kingdom Hearts related. I only own Katy, my OC

* * *

Back in the computer room, DiZ and the cloaked man were talking about what happened during Roxas's "dive to the heart".

"Was that Naminé made of data?"

"No. Naminé hijacked the data herself. Look what she's done now. She's totally beyond my control!"

"Blondie did what?"

The two turned around to find a very angry Katy glaring at them with her fists clenched.

"Katyana-" DiZ began.

"Save it. Where is she?"

DiZ said nothing but the cloaked man muttered something about the white room.

Katy tore out of the basement, stomped up the stairs, and ripped the door of the white room open so hard, she was surprised it stayed on it's hinges. She then slammed it with a force that made the walls rattle and Naminé gasp.

"What are you playing at, witch?" Katy spat, invading the other girl's personal space.

"I-"

"You're supposed to be fixing Sora's memory! Not luring his Nobody into the forest where he can be attacked, or messing around with his mind! You'll ruin everything! If you don't bring Sora back soon, the Organization will find him and use him! What do you think will happen to you then? I can guarantee you that they won't let you stay here all safe after you helped betray them." Katy ranted, her face growing hot with anger.

"Don't you even care what will happen to Roxas?" Naminé cried.

"Nothing bad is going to happen to Roxas! Worst case scenario is if he goes back to Organization XIII. Do you know what'll happen if he does that, blondie? The worlds are going to end because there won't be a Keyblade Master!"

Naminé opened her mouth to protest but Katy wasn't having it.

"Look just do what you promised Sora you'd do. Make him the way he was. Don't worry about Roxas he'll be fine, but I swear, blondie, if you pull a stunt like that again, the Organization will be the last ones you need to worry about."

And on that happy note, Katy turned on her heel and stormed out of the white room, leaving Naminé alone once more. She decided to go out into the woods and kill some Dusks. She needed an outlet for all the stress that had been suffocating her lately.

**

* * *

**

Again with the damn dreams.

_With Riku just outside the Castle at Hollow Bastion;_

"_It's up to me. Only the Keyblade Master can open the secret door and change the world._

_With Donald and Goofy just before fighting Riku inside Hollow Bastion Castle;_

"_But I'm not gonna betray Sora either."_

"_All for one and one for all."_

"_My friends are my power."_

_With Beast after defeating Riku;_

"_So, your heart won this battle."_

_With Riku after Ansem took over his body._

"_It is I, Ansem. Lead me into everlasting darkness."_

"_Forget it. There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart."_

_Just before Sora sacrificed himself for Kairi;_

_"Give it, Katy."_

_"No."_

_"Give it!"_

_"NO."_

_After Sora is turned back from being a Heartless;_

"_Kairi."_

_Outside the Hollow Bastion Keyhole with Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie;_

"_We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other."_

"_No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again._

_With Kairi in the secret waterway;_

"_Take this. It's my lucky charm, be sure to bring it back to me._

"_Don't worry, I will."_

"_Promise?"_

"_Promise."_

**

* * *

**

Roxas woke up and sighed at the lousy sleep he'd gotten. The last words from the dream echoed in his mind and he remembered the struggle match was today.

"Right...promise." he said to himself, flopping back down on his bed. "What a mess."

Meanwhile almost the entire town was already over at the struggle match already, including Olette and Pence.

"Who are you gonna root for?" Pence asked Olette

"Both of them, silly." She replied as fireworks exploded overhead.

The announcer for the event went to the middle of the arena and proceeded to open the match.

"Ladies and gentleman. Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for the summer's most sizzlin' clash! That's right! Today's the day for the Struggle and title match. Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our champion Setzer? And who will leave today as our new Struggle Champion?"

The crowd cheered and more fireworks went off. Then the announcer continued;

"Now it's time to introduce today's combatants! The four bad boys who struggled their way through the prelims! Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee: Seifer! Completely out of nowhere—who knew he'd make it so far THIS year? Vivi! An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! It's his first trip to the finals! And struggle number four, who happens to be my favorite customer: Roxas! So—who will win this sweltering summer Struggle? Who will take home the grand prize? The summa cum laude of Struggle—the Four Crystal Trophy! AND a chance to take on our defending champion Setzer! It won't be long now! I suggest the champions go over the Struggle rules before we begin."

The announcer explained the rules and set up the first match which was between Roxas and Hayner. He patted them both on the back and left to start the fight.

"Hey...sorry about yesterday." Roxas apologized.

"What, you still worried about that? You need to learn to let that stuff go."

"I've had a lot on my mind..." Roxas admitted trailing off.

"Sorry man...wait, what am I sorry for?" Hayner joked.

The two friends grinned at each other and took a fighting stance while the announcer announced their match.

The thing about Hayner was that he was extremley impulsive. That gave him a small edge of being unpredictable, but other than that was usually his downfall. That was the outcome today, apparently since Hayner lost pretty badly.

"And the winner is, Roxas! Not even friendship will bring this kid down. And Hayner put up a great fight too."

Roxas ran over to Hayner, who was lying spread eagled on the ground.

"I lost! Awww I can't believe it!" He moaned, pulling himself into upright and smirking at Roxas. "I guess I taught you well."

"I had a great time fighting you." Roxas said, grinning

"Yeah, well I didn't, wise guy." Hayner pouted, crossing his arms

"Let's find a way to cheer you up." Roxas offered

"Nah, that's all right." Hayner laughed, shoving the other teen playfully.

"Out of my way." Seifer drawled, pushing past the two, struggle bat I hand.

"Why, you in a rush to lose?" Hayner taunted

Vivi took his place across from Seifer and Hayner and Roxas left the arena.

"Don't mess with your elders." Seifer sneered at Vivi who, as usual, said nothing

"Whew, just look at those sparks fly. I guess Seifer didn't expect to fight one of his own boys!" The announcer remarked, commencing the battle.

Vivi immediately lunged at Seifer, who managed to dodge but still looked pretty shocked.

He wasn't the only one.

"Man, when did Vivi get so tough?" Hayner asked Roxas, who shrugged

The struggle continued, Vivi continuing to fight admirably. Finally, Seifer managed to land a hit, causing Vivi to drop one of his blue struggle orbs.

"You're mine!" Seifer exclaimed, running towards it.

This is where it starts to get fuzzy.

Vivi jumped in the air and raised his arms above his head, causing Seifer to suddenly fall over, dropping all of his orbs in the process.

"I-I'm not sure what just happened. Um…but… the winner is, Vivi in a positively blistering comeback!" The announcer said, just as confused as everyone else.

Seifer jumped out of the arena, rejoining Rai and Fuu and starting towards the exit. On the way out he passed Roxas and Hayner, who were also looking a little confused.

"That's not Vivi." Seifer said to Roxas as they passed.

"Huh?" Roxas replied, now more than a little confused.

"Thrash 'im." Seifer said, striding passed them, looking royally pissed off.

Roxas looked over at Vivi who, surprisingly, was staring right back.

Yeah, it was pretty creepy.

Roxas was startled out of his staring contest when the announcer came over to him and Hayner and began speaking.

"It looks like Seifer has withdrawn from the Struggle for third place."

"So I'm in third now? Aw, baby!" Hayner exclaimed happily.

Roxas followed the announcer into the ring and took a stance across from Vivi.

"Keep it clean, fellas." The announcer warned, stepping out of the ring to begin commentary.

"And now, the match you've been waiting for! Roxas vs. Vivi!"

The match began normally, Roxas ran at Vivi with his bat raised. Then, just as it had yesterday, time seemed to stop. The crowd was frozen mid-cheer and the fireworks had stopped mid-explosion. The only ones who weren't frozen were him and Vivi…who promptly turned into a dusk.

"Again?" Roxas groaned as two more dropped on either side of him so he was surrounded.

He was relieved when his struggle bat turned into the Keyblade again, so at least he'd be able to damage them. Having no choice but to fight them, Roxas swung at the enemies, managing to obliterate one before the cavalry came. One of the dusks was about to lash out at him but, a short sword, also shaped like a key, blocked the blow. Roxas followed the sword up and his eyes locked with a familiar pair of light green ones.

"Thanks." Roxas panted, deflecting another hit as he spoke.

"Don't mention it." Katy replied, taking down another dusk so there was only one left.

With the two of them, the last foe was gone in under a minute. Roxas looked over at Katy, who still seemed nervous.

"What's wrong?"

"It's not over yet. Something else is here."

"What are these…things?" He asked her, nodding in the direction of where the Dusks once stood.

"It's hard to explain…and I don't have the time to explain it."

Roxas nodded, not pressing for an explanation. He scanned the crowd, noting that they were still frozen in time.

"Is it gonna go back to normal soon?" Roxas asked, his tone a little desperate.

"As soon as we kill whatever's still here." Katy replied with a nod.

"And then you're going to mysteriously vanish again." Roxas guessed.

Katy laughed and grinned at him

"Look who catches on fast? Since you miss me so much I might stick around this time."

They were interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. They both whipped around in time to see a cloaked man step out of an alleyway.

"Roxas. All right. Fight, fight, fight." He said, sarcastically as he stepped into the struggle ring.

Roxas stared at the man blankly while Katy gritted her teeth beside him.

"I know that voice." She muttered loud enough for only Roxas to hear.

Meanwhile the figure continued speaking.

"You really don't remember? It's me. You know—" The mad began as he took off his hood, revealing his obscenely red hair.

"Axel." Katy finished for him through clenched teeth.

Axel looked over at her and grinned.

"Hello again, Katy. I can't say I'm surprised to see you here. Tell me, what would your boyfriend think of you hanging around with him?" He asked, gesturing over to Roxas.

"Shut up, Axel." Katy retorted, sneering.

Axel raised his hands up in mock surrender.

"Touchy. But anyway…" He looked over at Roxas who was watching their exchange and looking very out of the loop.

"Talk about blank with a capital "B". Even the Dusks aren't gonna be able to crack this one." Axel muttered, more to himself than anyone else, summoning his chakrams as he spoke.

"Wait a sec, someone tell me what's going on!" Roxas exclaimed, looking between Axel and Katy.

Axel smirked and looked over at the ladder

"This town is his creation, right?" He asked, smugly "Which means we don't have time for a Q and A." He turned back to Roxas. "You're coming with me, conscious or not. Then you'll hear the story."

Suddenly the air began to warp around them. Axel looked up, concerned

"Oh, no." He groaned under his breath looking around, warily.

While he was distracted, Katy stepped slightly in front of Roxas, swords drawn.

"What are you doing? Get back!"

"No. I'm here to protect you. Not the other way around." Katy answered, eyes still on Axel and his giant flaming weapons.

Roxas scowled and threw the Keyblade at the ground, hard.

"What's going ON?" He yelled fists clenched.

The Keyblade began to sparkle and was suddenly back in his hand.

"Number 13, Roxas. The Keyblade's chosen one." Axel stated, swinging his chakrams threateningly

Looking from the weapon, to Katy, and back to Axel, Roxas bit back a groan.

"Okay, fine! You asked for it." Roxas said.

Then they all began to fight. Hooray.

Roxas had to admit; he and Katy made a good team. That and that she must have really hated this Axel guy cause she was pretty vicious. Just when he thought that the fight would never end, a portal that was made of computer code appeared behind him.

"So it was you." Axel sneered at the red clothed man who stepped out of said portal.

Axel threw his chakrams at the man, but they disappeared before they touched him. He then turned to Roxas.

"Roxas. This man speaks nonsense!"

"Roxas! Don't let him deceive you!" Axel exclaimed.

"Roxas."

"Roxas!"

Roxas covered his ears to block out the yelling. He was so confused and annoyed and extremley freaked out. Hands still covering his ears, He began to chant;

"Hayner…Pence…Olette…"

When the voices seemed to grow louder he fisted his hands at his sides and yelled at the top of his lungs;

"Hayner! Pence! Olette!"

And just like that, time returned to normal. Vivi, whom he'd forgotten about, slumped to the ground in front of him.

"What? What just happened?" The announcer exclaimed.

Vivi looked confused too

"Huh? How did I get here?" He asked Roxas confused, before shrugging and going off to look for Seifer.

"Roxas!" Olette exclaimed as She, Pence, and Hayner ran over to him

"Ladies and Gentleman, Roxas!" The announcer continued.

It was all a little overwhelming and Roxas looked around nervously, feeling a little trapped. His eyes met Katy's, who was standing in the crowd. She smiled at him and winked. Happy that she was still there, he pulled away from his friends and walked over to her.

"What just—"

"Don't worry about it. It's been taken care of." She reassured him

"But—"

"I said don't worry."

"Whose this, Roxas?" Olette asked, coming up next to him

"Uh…this is Katy. She—"

"I'm a friend of Roxas' from out of town." Katy cut him off with a grin.

"Roxas has a GIRLFRIEND." Hayner teased, clapping him on the shoulder.

Meanwhile, the crowd started chanting and Roxas knew that was his cue for his struggle with Setzer.

"Good luck, Roxas. You'll be fine." Katy called to him as he entered the ring once more.

**

* * *

**

Roxas, Hayner, Pence and Olette sat on top of the clock tower a few hours later, Roxas holding the struggle trophy. After the match with Setzer, Katy had disappeared again, but Olette told him that she'd invited her to hang out with them tomorrow. Maybe he'd be able to convince her to give him some answers. He absentmindedly pulled each of the orbs off of the Struggle Trophy and tossed one to each of his friends.

"As promised."

"Thanks a ton, Roxas." Pence said with a grin.

"Another treasure for us to share." Hayner said, holding his up to the light.

"I've got a present too, for all of us." Olette said, pulling four sea-salt ice cream bars out of her bag.

Roxas jumped up to get his and lost his footing on the edge. Failing to regain his balance, he fell off the clock tower, blacking out on the way down.

**

* * *

**

"Kairi! Wait up!"

Back on Destiny Islands, Kairi paused and looked back, a small smile gracing her lips as her friend Selphie ran to catch up with her.

"Hey, do you feel like going out to the island? Tidus and Wakka are all wrapped up in their ballgame and they won't go with me."

"Not today, sorry." Kairi replied, speeding up her walking a bit.

"Aw, why not?" Selphie pouted, jogging to catch up.

"Do you remember those boys who used to hang out with us?" Kairi asked

"Riku?"

"Yeah."

"I wonder whatever happened to him. I sure miss him."

"He's far away. But I know we'll see him again."

"Sure, of course we will."

"And the other boy?" Kairi asked

"What other boy?" Selphie wracked her brain.

"The one that was with Riku and me all the time—we used to play together on that island. His voice always used to be there…but now it's gone. I can't think of his face or his name. I feel awful about it." Kairi confessed, sadly "So I told myself—I'm not going to the island until I remember everything about him."

"Are you sure you didn't make him up?" Selphie inquired.

Kairi nodded, sure of herself

"_Naminé?"_

Kairi put a hand to her head at the voice. It was familiar…but not at the same time. She could see the faint image of a boy falling.

"_Naminé, what's happening to me?"_

**"Who are you? And that's not my name. I'm Kairi" She spoke back to the voice in her mind**

"_Kairi. I know you. You're that girl he's friends with."_

**"Who? Please, a name!**"

"_I'm Roxas."_

**"Okay, Roxas, but can you tell me HIS name?"**

Then a different, voice chimed in.

"_**You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi!"**_

Kairi gasped. She knew that voice…

"_**O-kay. I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an "S"".**_

The image of the falling boy, Roxas, fell away and took both boys' voices with it. Next thing she knew, Selphie was helping her off the ground.

"Are you okay?" The brunette asked the redhead and she nodded affirmative before running down to the island.

Selphie followed her firned confused and a little bit worried. When she found her, Kairi was placing a bottle with a note in it into the surf.

"What's that?" Selphie asked.

"A letter… I wrote it yesterday to the boy I can't remember." Kairi replied. "I said that no matter where he is, I'll find him. One day. And when I stopped writing, I remember we made a promise. Something important. This letter is where it starts, I know it."

"Wow…I hope he gets it."

"He will." Kairi grinned to herself. "Starts with an "S". Isn't that right, Sora?"

**Restoration at 79%**

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A/N: 10 REVIEWS PLEASE!**


	5. Day 5: The Seven Wonders

**Authors Note: Once again, not quite 10 reviews, but it's Saturday, so, yeah...Thanks to: soraroxas365, kiki, 1st class Soldier Girl, SexyZexy, SpringBorn, ShimmerMist, and kingdomdisney for reviewing! And thanks also for those who read bot didn't review. All of you are awesome!. Okey dokey, so here is chapter 5! It's the longest one yet, so I hope you like it!**

Disclaimer: I STILL do't own anything Kingdom Hearts related...well...except my games that is. But other than those, just Katy :)

* * *

Back in the computer room at the old mansion, DiZ was, as usual, monitoring Sora's restoration on his many different computer screens.

"His progress is astounding." DiZ remarked to the cloaked man, who Katy affectionately dubbed 'Cloaky'.

"So what happened?" Cloaky asked, tossing a very familiar blue orb into the air and catching it before slipping it into a very familiar munny pouch.

"Naminé's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's and that, in turn, affected Sora. You see?"

"Naminé. She's a wonder." Cloaky remarked

"She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him."

"If she does, I'll kick her ass into the middle of next week." Katy said, striding into the room.

"Ah, Katyana. I see you made it back safely." DiZ said, monotonously

"No thanks to you. You could have created some backup…or sent Cloaky to come help me. Axel could have done some serious damage if you hadn't come when you did."

"And that's why I came. So I was your 'back up' as you said."

Katy rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall next to the computer screens.

"Katyana, why don't you go check on Naminé's progress? I believe she's in the white room." DiZ suggested

Katy narrowed her eyes at his not-so-subtle attempt to get her out of the room, but nodded and went to go find Naminé.

After a few moments of silence, Cloaky asked the million-dollar question

"Whose Nobody is she? Naminé?"

DiZ looked over at the hooded man.

"I could tell you. But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name?"

Slowly, Cloaky lowered his hood to reveal that he was the same guy who plunged a 30-inch sword through Katy's chest.

Sort of. Not really

"It's Ansem." Cloaky—er—Ansem *cough* Riku *cough* replied.

This caused DiZ to burst into laughter. When he finally got it under control, he nodded

"It's an honor, Ansem!"

**

* * *

**

Roxas jerked awake, breathing heavily. The last thing he remembered was falling off the clock tower…

"I was dreaming…" He muttered to himself. "But which parts were the dream?"

Roxas went about his normal morning routine, trying to snap himself out of the fog that seemed to have settled over his brain. When he got to the Usual Spot, he was shocked to see Katy sitting with his friends, talking calmly to Hayner about something. Roxas blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Hayner didn't let just _anybody_ hang out in their spot. Katy, feeling his gaze, looked up and grinned

"Hey, Roxas!"

"Uh…hi?"

"What, not happy to see me?" She teased, pushing her lavender bangs out of her eyes.

"No…I'm just…I'm shocked that Hayner actually let you in." He retorted, laughing a little.

Pence snickered as well, causing Hayner to glare at all three of them.

Roxas was about to ask what they were doing today, when Olette stomped in looking extremley pissed. The whole room got quiet, everyone wracking their brains for what they'd done to make the brunette girl so upset. Then Hayner opened his big mouth…

"Only three days left of summer vacation—so don't even mention that assignment!" He warned, crossing his arms and looking away

"But we agreed we'd get it finished today." Olette protested, hands on her hips.

Roxas cut in, interrupting with an absurd question

"Yesterday…I fell of the station tower, didn't I?" He asked

They all, save Katy, looked at him as though he'd grown a second head.

"You wouldn't be here if you did." Hayner replied, pointing out the obvious.

"But, man, that was a close one." Pence added.

"Stop changing the subject!" Olette said, sternly.

"Okay, already!" Hayner groaned. "We'll do the homework. Stupid independent study."

Katy snorted

"Dude, you're complaining about an _independent study?_ Last summer, I had to write _four essays_ for my English class. You're not allowed to complain."

"Fine, if you think it's so easy, you can help us." Hayner shot back.

"Fine, I will." Katy replied, crossing her arms and sticking her tongue out at the blonde.

"Anybody got any bright ideas for a topic?" Hayner asked, looking at each of them in turn.

While Pence started blabbing on about the seven wonders of Twilight Town, Roxas crossed the room and sat next to Katy.

"So, I guess your elusive streak is over?" He teased, shoving her arm lightly

Katy laughed and nodded.

"I was trying to stay away, you know? Figured your friends might get mad if you started hanging out with someone else." She joked back

"Ha, ha. But, seriously…" Roxas lowered his voice. "You seem to know what's going on around here. You knew what those _things _were called, you always show up when I'm in trouble, that Axel guy knew your name—"

"He knew yours, too." Katy cut him off

"That's beside the point. You know what's wrong with me…and…you need to tell me…" He trailed off.

He looked at her, _really_ looked at her and just like the day they first met, he felt like he _knew_ her.

"You…you…I had a dream about you the other night. You were with _him._ You know him." He stuttered, tripping over his words.

Before she could answer, Olette came over and told them that they were heading out to Station heights to start looking for the seven wonders.

Olette Hayner and Pence set off in one direction and sent Roxas and Katy off in the opposite one, saying that they'd meet up later. After an awkward silence, Katy cleared her throat.

"So…aren't these the steps Pence was talking about? The ones that counted different going up and down?" She asked

"Well, yeah, but…See this guy we know, Rai, was the one that counted and…he's not exactly the brightest…" Roxas began

"So he counted wrong?" Katy snickered

"Yeah, I guess so." Roxas replied, grinning a little.

"Okay, no worries. What's are some of the other ones he was going on about?"

"Uh…"the friend behind the wall" was one. Apparently there's this wall in Sunset Terrace that throws dodge balls at you."

"Okay, cool. Let's go."

As they made their way to the terrace, they started talking about the struggle match.

"Sorry I missed your fight with Setzer, I needed to get home. My…sister was causing trouble and I needed to go help sort it out." Katy explained.

"Hey, no problem. You didn't really miss much anyway. The guy was a joke, he tried to bribe me into letting him win."

"Wow, what a loser." Katy agreed

"Yeah, tell me about it. So, yeah after that they gave me the belt and the trophy. The trophy was kinda lame so I took the orbs off of it and gave one to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. I have one too. Here…"

Roxas searched his pockets for the blue orb, but couldn't find it.

"It must have fallen out or something…" He muttered to himself.

"Yeah, or something." Katy replied under her breath.

When they finally made it to the terrace, they began their search for the wall. Roxas went down an alleyway and tapped on the brick wall.

"Dead end. Maybe we should—" He was cut off when a white dodge ball came _through_ the wall and nearly hit him in the head.

And it didn't stop there. They just kept coming in different formations, pushing them back when they made contact.

"C'mon! Maybe it'll stop if we can touch the wall." Roxas said to Katy, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him

He was right. When they came in contact with the wall, the balls stopped.

And of course that's when Pence came running around the corner. They told him what happened and while he was giving them some half assed explanation as to why this happened, Katy looked back at the wall and could have sworn she saw a dark corridor closing.

"Okey dokey, why don't we go find some of the other ones?" She suggested, hurriedly pulling Roxas away from the wall.

"Hey, what's the rush?" Roxas asked, grabbing onto Katy's wrist so she would stop

"Nothing. Don't you want to get this done?" She asked, trying to look innocent.

Roxas sighed.

"Look, Katy. You really need to tell me what the hell's been going on here, lately."

"I wish I could, Roxas. I really, really do, but believe me when I say that you're better off not knowing. Everything will make sense soon, I swear, but when it does can you promise to forgive me? For not telling you?"

Roxas looked at her for a long time, searching for any kind of answer in her big, green eyes but found nothing. Closing his eyes in defeat, he nodded.

"Yeah, I promise."

Katy managed to give him a small smile and they started off to look for the next "wonder"

They entered the so-called moaning tunnel and all they found was one of Seifer's cronies.

"Vivi?" Roxas called out to the creepy boy

Vivi began laughing and, before they knew it, he freaking _cloned _himself and attacked them.

When they finally managed to rid themselves of the Vivi-copies, Katy busted out laughing.

"Oh my God. That was so creepy and weird!" She said between giggles, literally falling on the floor.

"If it was so creepy, then why are you laughing?" Roxas asked, amused

"I have no freaking clue." Katy replied, pulling herself off the floor, still snickering.

Just as they were about to leave, the real Vivi came around the corner.

"What is it, Roxas?" He asked, walking up to them. He held out a struggle bat. "Did you need this? Planning on getting in some practice, I bet."

"Er, no," Roxas began "It's just that…there were so many of you…"

Vivi looked confused

"Huh? So…many of me? I don't get it. Anyway, I'm done with this, Roxas. You can take your time." Vivi said, handing Roxas the struggle bat and walking away.

As he left the tunnel, Pence ran up.

"So the mystery voice was just Vivi practicing." He reasoned

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain the clones." Katy mumbled

"Clones?" Pence asked

"Listen there were a whole bunch of Vivi clones here just a minute ago…" Roxas began telling Pence

And that's when Katy saw Vivi turn into a Dusk and leave through a dark corridor.

Katy paled and restlessly waited for Roxas to finish talking before she pulled him to their next destination.

It continued just like this for the next half hour the next wonder consisted of a shadow Roxas, which was exactly like the Antisora. It was creepy and Katy couldn't damage it. The next one was a sack that apparently moved on it's own. They found out it was actually a dog. Both times Pence turned up and explained away all of the weird stuff and only Katy saw the shadow Roxas reappear at the fountain and the dog turn into a Dusk. The Organization was obviously watching them.

"You know, that last wonder wasn't exactly wonderful." Roxas said to Pence after they freed the dog—er Dusk from the sack.

"I understand, say no more! But this next one's gonna be really great! Wonder number Six!

Katy rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh.

"We got another lead!" Hayner called as he and Olette ran up.

"The Ghost Train Mystery"… Olette exclaimed

"Everyone knows about wonder number six." Pence said, trying to hide a grin

"Yeah, well I didn't." Hayner protested, crossing his arms

"Did you find out where the train runs?" Roxas asked

Olette nodded

"You can see it from Sunset Hill."

"Great, let's go!" Katy said taking off, the others following.

They reached Sunset Hill and all four collapsed on the grass.

"If the rumors are true, it'll be here any minute." Hayner said

"They say the train is empty." Pence said in a spooky voice. "No driver, no conductor, no passengers…NO RETURN."

So they waited…and waited…and WAITED

"We gotta make it to the beach next year." Olette remarked.

"Yeah, we better get jobs the second vacation starts." Hayner agreed. He looked over at Katy and grinned. "You can come with us too if you want…if your gonna be here."

Katy laughed and nodded

"Thanks, Hayner. You make me feel loved." She joked causing the others to laugh.

"Good evening, slackers. What are you ding out here?" Seifer asked, looking down at them.

"Gee, where did he come from?" Katy mumbled "Freaking ninja."

"What do you care?" Hayner drawled back.

"I don't. Tell me anyway." Seifer replied

"We're waiting for the ghost train." Katy said, a slight smirk on her face

Seifer looked over at her and raised an eyebrow

"I've never seen you before. What's a pretty girl like you doing hanging out with these lamers?" Seifer taunted, taking a step closer to Katy.

"Gag me with a spoon. Only in your dreams…_lamer_." Katy retorted, smiling sweetly

Seifer took another menacing step towards her, looking royally pissed off. Roxas shot up and stood in front to the purple-haired girl, glaring right back.

"Why does looking at you always tick me off?" Seifer sneered

"I dunno, maybe it's destiny." Roxas answered in a bored tone

Seifer scoffed

"Destiny? In that case, let's be friends. I don't feel like cooperating with destiny."

"When have you ever cooperated with anything?" Hayner demanded, smirking

Seifer just rolled his eyes and walked away.

"Look!" Roxas exclaimed, running over to look over the wood railing.

Katy peered over too and saw it. It was a strange looking train that appeared to be completely empty. The Ghost Train.

"It's really true. And there's really no one aboard. What's the catch? There's got to be a catch, right?" Roxas continued to babble.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette looked at each other, sharing worried glances. Katy closed her eyes, coming to the conclusion that they didn't see the train.

"Let's go to the station!" Roxas said, already running in that direction.

When they got there, the train was sitting idle on the tracks.

"C'mon, Let's go in." Roxas said, starting towards the door.

Hayner grabbed his wrist and pulled him back

"What are you doing?" Roxas demanded

"You'll get hurt." Hayner said, softly looking at his friend with concern.

And just like that, the train was gone. In a blink of an eye.

"_The train will be arriving shortly."_ A mans voice said over the intercom.

Sure enough, the real train pulled in seconds later and let off its passengers.

"C'mon." Pence said, quietly

"A train came from the beach. It had no driver, right?" Roxas asked, desperately

"Let's go." Hayner said firmly

"Right?" Roxas asked, invading Olette's personal space, causing her to jump back and shake her head slowly.

Hayner angrily grabbed Roxas by the arm and pulled him onto the train. The ride back was silent.

They got off the train, Hayner Pence and Olette walking ahead of Roxas and Katy.

"Let's go home and work on the paper." Hayner suggested

"The rumors were bogus. The end." Pence said, only half joking

"We can still make it sound good if we write about all the work we did." Olette protested.

"What about the last one? The seventh wonder?" Roxas asked from behind them

"Who cares?" Hayner yelled, angrily

"I do, C'mon Pence."

"Roxas…" Olette tried to reason

Pence sighed

"It's at that haunted mansion."

The three of them took off Leaving Roxas alone with Katy.

"C'mon, Roxas. I'll go to the mansion with you." Katy said, giving him a kind smile.

Roxas smiled back and the pair headed over to Market Street.

"You saw it, didn't you? The train. I saw you looking at it." Roxas said as they approached the woods.

Katy sighed and nodded

"Yes, I saw it."

"Then why didn't you say something?" Roxas demanded, angrily

Katy looked down at her shoes.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should have said something."

Roxas sighed and shook his head

"No, I'm sorry for yelling. Let's just get to the mansion, okay."

Katy nodded and the two entered the hole in the wall that led to the woods.

They got to the Old Mansion and gazed up at the rather beautiful house that was behind the locked Iron Gate, looking for something unusual. Roxas was the one to break the silence.

"Katy, the boy I was talking about earlier, in the Usual Spot, you know him, don't you?"

Katy sighed deeply and nodded

"Yes."

"Who is he?"

"Roxas…I—It's really hard…for me to talk about him."

"When we were fighting Axel. He said something about your boyfriend not wanting you to hang around with me. Is he your boyfriend?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Katy snapped, turning away from him so he wouldn't see the tears that had suddenly sprung into her eyes.

"He is, isn't he?" Roxas said, waling over and placing a tentative hand on her shoulder.

"Yes. He is." Katy said, trying and failing to keep her voice steady

"What happened to him?"

"He-he had to go away for awhile. I couldn't go with him, I was meant to do something else. But now, things aren't going like they're supposed to and I'm just so afraid that he's never coming back…or that when he does, he won't be the same."

Katy was crying freely now and Roxas didn't know how to respond.

"I'm sure he'll come back. He's crazy if he doesn't." Roxas remarked, trying to make her feel better.

Katy laughed a little through her tears and nodded

"Thanks, Roxas." She said, turning around and giving him a hug.

Roxas was a little startled, but wrapped his arms around her anyway.

It felt…normal. Familiar.

They pulled apart and Katy wiped the rest of the tears out of her eyes.

Then Pence scared the shit out of them.

"You know we were all gonna come here and investigate here tomorrow. It IS the most suspicious place." Pence remarked, tying to cheer Roxas up.

"Right…" Roxas agreed half-heartedly

"Even Seifer's gang was gonna help." Pence asked.

"Really, Seifer?" Katy asked, bemused and trying hard not to show that she'd been crying a few seconds ago.

"Yeah, Hayner asked him to."

There were a few moments of silence before Roxas asked

"So, what are we lookin' for?"

"Well, they say there's a girl that appears at the second floor window…even though no one's lived here for years."

Katy stiffened. She had a good idea who this mysterious girl was.

"Roxas, I think we should go. This place gives me the creeps."

"No…let's just stay a little longer." He answered distractedly, eyes glazing over

Katy knew Naminé was drawing him in. She leaned in close and whispered in Roxas's ear;

"Don't fall for her act, Roxas. She's never what she seems."

Then she could tell he'd been pulled in.

'_When I get back later, Blondie is so dead.'_

**KHKHKHKH**

He was in a white room. Drawing were strewn everywhere, drawings of familiar people. Katy's voice floated back to him.

"_Don't fall for her act, Roxas. She's never what she seems."_

"Roxas…" A familiar female voice called to him.

"Naminé?" He asked, eyes settling on a picture of what looked like Axel and…him? "Is that…me? And Axel's there too."

"You are best friends."

Roxas laughed

"Very funny."

"Don't you want to know the truth? About who you really are?" Naminé asked

"No one knows me better than me." Roxas replied a bit defensively

"Of course."

"But…I don't get what's been happening to me lately."

His eyes found another drawing on the wall

"You know these three, don't you?" Naminé asked

"Yeah. Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"And in the one next to it?"

"That's Sora and Katy. They're all from the dreams."

"About a year ago…some things happened. I had to take apart the memories chained together in Sora's heart. But now…I'm putting them all back exactly the way that they were."

Once again, Katy's voice echoed back to him.

"_He-he had to go away for awhile. I couldn't go with him, I was meant to do something else. But now, things aren't going like they're supposed to and I'm just so afraid that he's never coming back…or that when he does, he won't be the same."_

Naminé continued.

"It's taken me a long time, but pretty soon, Sora will be his old self again. The process has been affecting you, too, Roxas."

"You mean…the dreams?"

"Yes…you and Sora are connected. And…in order for Sora to become completely whole again…he needs you."

"Me? What for?"

"You hold half of what he is. He needs you, Roxas."

"Naminé?"

There was a flash and suddenly Roxas was sitting across from Naminé at the long white table in the middle of the room.

"Naminé…who are you?" Roxas asked.

"I'm a witch. With power over Sora's memories and those around him."

"A witch?"

"That's what DiZ called me. But I don't know why I have this power. I just do. I'm not even sure if there's a right way for me to use it."

"Well, I can't help you there." Roxas replied. "It's funny. Suddenly I feel like I don't know myself at all. I guess I would like to know. What do you know about me…that I don't?"

Naminé's gaze dropped to her hands.

"You…you were never supposed to exist, Roxas."

"What? How could you even say such a thing? Even if it were true…" Roxas asked, extremley hurt by the witch's words.

"I'm sorry. I guess some things really are better left unsaid.

And on that happy note, the white room faded around him and next thing he knew Pence was shaking him.

"Roxas! Roxas! Did you see her?"

What was he doing out here again? Oh, right! The assignment…

"Yeah, watch the window closely."

Pence gazed up and the window and frowned.

"Aw, lame. It's just the curtains moving. There must be a draft somewhere. I'm surprised this old place even has curtains."

"Yeah…" Roxas replied, distracted

"Well, let's head back to the usual spot. Hayner and Olette are waiting."

Roxas's eyes flicked over to Katy who was standing a ways away from them.

"Yeah, I'll be right there. I just want to talk to Katy first."

Pence nodded and left the two alone. Katy broke the long silence that followed.

"What did Naminé tell you?"

"She told me that I'm half of what Sora is. That he needs me." Roxas took a shuddery breath. "She said I was never supposed to exist."

Katy closed her eyes in sympathy.

"I was afraid she would."

"Katy…what's going to happen to me?" Roxas asked.

Katy looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears again.

"I don't know, Roxas. I honestly don't know."

Roxas stared at her, almost fearfully and took a few steps away.

"I-I think you need to go."

"Yeah, me too." Katy replied. She began to walk in the direction of the woods. Before disappearing in the trees, she looked back.

"I'm really sorry, Roxas."

Roxas didn't respond. He didn't move until he was sure she was gone. Trekking back into town, he started towards the usual spot.

"Hey, Roxas. Pence told us what happened. Hope your not too bummed."

"No, I'm alright."

"Hey, where's Katy?" Pence asked

"She had to go home. Something about her…sister." Roxas replied, realizing the sister Katy had mentioned before was most likely Naminé.

"Oh, okay, well do you want to go find Hayner? He's probably at the station."

Roxas nodded and the three made their way to the station tower where they found Hayner eating ice cream.

"Tomorrow we search the town." Hayner said, hearing them walk up.

"Day after's the fair." Pence remarked

"The last day of summer." Olette added

"Don't say that! You'll give me an ulcer!" Hayner groaned.

"Not if you explode from all that ice cream first." Pence teased

As his three friends laughed, Roxas remained silent. He had a bad feeling about tomorrow. A really bad feeling.

**

* * *

**

"Why did you show him the train? Cloaky, sorry, Ansem asked DiZ

"Because he missed the trip to the beach." DiZ replied.

"That's almost kind of you." Ansem remarked dryly.

"Now. What about you? Are the holes in your memory starting to fill in?" DiZ inquired.

"Yes. The haze is clearing."

"The same thing is happening to everyone who had ties to Sora. Very soon, to them, he'll be like a very good friend who's gone away for a year."

Ansem sat down across from DiZ

"I've waited and now I want to know. What is it that you want?"

"Revenge." DiZ replied, bitter.

"Revenge?"

DiZ nodded and no more was said on the matter.

"Now, for the finishing touches. It's time we dispose of Naminé. She did a splendid job with Sora but it's high time she disappeared. Roxas isn't the only one who wasn't meant to exist. Take care of it, Ansem."

That was around the time that Katy stomped into the house, teas running down her face. She said nothing to the two men; she simply stomped up the stairs and entered the white room. Naminé looked up from a drawing, startled.

"You did it, are you happy now?" Katy demanded.

"He had a right to know, Katy. He needs to have a choice!"

"Naminé, if he has a choice what do you think he'll choose? Huh? To disappear? Of course not! You just ruined everything; I hope you're happy. The worlds are all going to fall into darkness. Organization XIII will get stronger and probably kill all of us for working against them and it's ALL YOUR FAULT." Katy shrieked, breathing heavily.

Naminé remained silent and Katy slumped against the nearest wall, sliding to the floor. She buried her head in her arms and cried. Cried for everything she'd lost and everything she was going to lose. Naminé came over a knelt next to her.

"I'm…sorry. I just thought—" The blonde began

"No. You're not sorry. You're just sorry you got caught." Katy said, her voice emotionless as she got up and started to the door. Before she left, she turned back;

"You and Roxas were never meant to live happily ever after, Naminé. No matter what you say could ever change that. He's a part of Sora, not his own person. I'm not trying to be mean, or possessive, or shallow but that's the truth. Roxas can't love you any more that Sora can."

She left the white room and Naminé knew she was right. She just didn't want to accept it.

**Restoration at 97%**

**

* * *

****A/N: Just so you know, I don't dislike Namine at all. She's actually my favorite character in the game :) Ten reviews this time? PLEASE?**


	6. Day 6: Summers Over

**Authors Note****: Nine review this time! Yay! Thank you so much: SexyZexy, 1st class Soldier Girl13, ShimmerMist, Taeniaea, kingdomdisney, ****Bloody'n'ScarredHitomi, SpringBorn, soraroxas365, and Makii for reviewing. Thanks again to: Taeniaea and ****Bloody'n'ScarredHitomi for checking those wonderful boxes. So...that's it I guess. Here's chapter 6!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything KH related. I just own Katy, my wonderful OC :)

* * *

It was, by far, the worst dream yet. It started out familiar…

_The island was dark and the shadows casted were threatening. A tall man in a black cloak lounged lazily on a log, looking up as a shorter boy, also in a black cloak appeared from a dark corridor._

_"You have arrived. I've been to see him...He looks a lot like you." The taller man stated._

_"Who are you?" The shorter boy asked_

He remembered who the man was.

_He was in a touristy town. There were neon lights everywhere advertizing different things. It was nighttime, but, in this tow it was always nighttime. He was killing heartless. That's what he was meant to do, kill Heartless._

_He was being watched._

_He threw one of his dual Keyblades at the man who was watching him. He didn't expect him to catch it but he did. The man jumped off the building he'd been spying from and began to fight him. He had long silver hair and was wearing a blindfold. The blindfolded man fell to the ground and called out;_

"_Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?"_

"_Shut up." Roxas replied, going in for the final blow…_

**

* * *

**

Roxas woke up from his restless sleep, feeling no different then he usually did. He got dressed, left his house, and made his way to the usual spot

"Man, I could not sleep at all last night." He remarked, rubbing his eyes.

No one answered him.

"Guys?" Roxas asked, placing a hand on Hayner's arm.

He gasped.

_His hand went right through Hayner's arm._

And as if that weren't enough, when they left they ran_ through_ him. Thoroughly freaked out now, Roxas picked up a picture that was lying on a sack of crates. It was of Hayner, Pence, and Olette. He wasn't there. Panicking, Roxas followed his friends out of the Usual Spot. He walked out and crashed into a frantic looking Katy.

_Wait…crashed INTO!_

"Katy! You…you're real!"

"Yes. I'm here. Roxas, we have to go right now!"

"Go where?" he asked

Before she could answer several Dusks rose out of the ground. And if that weren't enough, Axel also appeared, looking smug.

"Look at what it's come to. See, I've been given these icky orders to destroy you if you don't come back with me." He said to Roxas. Then his eyes flicked over to Katy and his smirk grew. "Always a pleasure, Katy."

"Shut up, Axel." She bit back.

Axel was about to reply when Roxas cut in.

"We're…best friends. Right?" He asked Axel

"Sure…" Axel began, rubbing the back of his head. "But I'm not getting turned into a Dusk for—Wait a sec! You remember now?"

"Y-Yeah!"

"Roxas, what are you doing?" Katy whispered, urgently

He pushed her lightly away from him and shook his head

"That's great! But…you know, gotta make sure…so, um…What's out bosses name? Axel asked, eyes hopeful

After a lengthy silence, it was clear that Roxas didn't know.

"Can't believe this…" Axel muttered, clearly unhappy

While he was distracted, Roxas bent down and grabbed a stick off the ground. By the time Axel's attention turned back to him, the stick had transformed into the Keyblade. Katy had summoned her own weapons and they were both ready to kick Axel's ass. Again. But, apparently, fate had other plans because suddenly, Axel was frozen in time. Then a voice, the voice of the guy with the red cloak from the struggle match, seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Roxas, Katy, to the mansion. The time has come.

"C'mon, Roxas." Katy said, softly pulling him along with her.

After the pair exited the Alley into Market Street, time progressed once more and Axel unfroze to find that Roxas and Katy had left.

"The Roxas that I know is long gone. Fine, I see how it is." He spoke to himself

If he were actually a Somebody, this would be what betrayal felt like…

Meanwhile, Katy and Roxas ran down Market Street, through the woods and finally reached the old mansion. They realized as soon as they got there that the gate was still locked and that Dusks were closing in. Katy was a little annoyed; DiZ could have at least opened the gates for them. As though he was reading her thoughts Roxas mumbled

"Don't call me and then lock me out."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Roxas had a sort of…flashback of Sora using the Keyblade.

Oh, duh _Key_blade

He used it to unlock the gate and the two rushed inside. Katy looked back and saw Cloaky taking care of the Dusks. The Foyer was eerily silent and it put both of them on edge. Katy started for the stairs, but Roxas held her back.

"Katy, what's going on?" He asked, looking completely lost.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She answered truthfully and motioned for him to follow her. She led Roxas up to the White Room.

"I know this place…" He began "It's—"

"Naminé's room." Katy finished.

She watched as Roxas looked around at all of the sketches Naminé had done in order to restore Sora's memories. He looked at one that happened to be of him and clutched his head in pain. He _knew_ that place…

*Flashback*

_Roxas walked the empty streets of whatever world he had traveled to with no true destination in mind. The hood on his Organization cloak was down so anyone who passed him, if there had been anyone out, would be able to see the anger on his face. He pretended not to notice his best friend, Axel, as he passed him but he couldn't ignore him when he spoke._

"_So your mind's made up?" Axel asked_

"_Why did the Keyblade choose me?" Roxas asked, avoiding the taller man's question. "I have to know."_

"_You can't turn on the Organization!" Axel snapped, angrily._

*End Flashback*

When Roxas could see straight again her turned around and saw that Naminé had joined them in the White Room.

"Organization XIII…they're a bad group."

"Bad, or good? I don't know." Naminé replied.

Katy snorted.

"They held you captive in a Castle for months. They threatened to kill you. I think that makes them pretty bad."

Naminé shot Katy a glare and continued.

"They're a group of incomplete people striving to be whole. To that end, they're desperately searching for something."

"What?" Roxas asked

"Kingdom Hearts."

Roxas laughed and Naminé looked over at him sharply

"Funny?"

"It's just…I think—I've been running away from the question I really wanna ask: What's gonna happen to me now? Just tell me that. Nothing else really matters anymore."

"You are—" Naminé began.

Then her image began to disappear…as though it was made of pixels. A portal made of computer code opened next to the chair Naminé had been sitting in and out stepped the red-cloaked guy from the Struggle.

"There's no knowledge that has the power to change your fate."

"Even if it doesn't. I wanna know. I have a right to know" Roxas persisted.

"Roxas, please." Katy pleaded. She knew he'd never do it if he knew what would happen.

"A Nobody doesn't have a right to know. Nor does it even have the right to be."

"But what IS a Nobody!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Before the man could answer, Ansem came in through the same kind of portal DiZ did.

"DiZ, we're out of time. Too many Nobodies!"

Then things started to got a little fuzzy.

A dark corridor opened and suddenly Naminé was there…the real Naminé and she seemed hell bent on telling Roxas the truth. The whole truth.

"Roxas. Nobodies like us are only half a person. You won't disappear. You'll be whole!"

"NO!" Katy shrieked.

"I'll disappear?" Roxas exclaimed, eyes widening."

"I swear to God Naminé! I hope the Organization gets a hold of you! You just killed us! You killed all of us!" Katy shrieked, trying to get across the room to cause the blonde some sort of bodily harm, but Roxas held her fast.

"No further outbursts!" DiZ said firmly, walking to the dark corridor and grabbing Naminé by the wrist.

Naminé however, was still trying to finish her explanation

"No, you WON'T disappear. You'll—" She was cut off by DiZ's hand over her mouth.

"Wait!" Roxas protested, taking a step forward only to be blocked by Ansem.

"Let her go! Naminé!"

They all disappeared through portals and it was just he and Katy again. Roxas whirled around and started yelling at her

"Did you know? Did you? Huh? You did, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Roxas, but if you don't fuse back with Sora, then we're all as good as dead."

"What do you mean?" He demanded.

"I mean that Sora is the only chance the worlds have. Without him, we might as well give up now."

To this, Roxas had no reply. He stormed out of the White room, Katy following a ways behind.

"Where is he? Sora? I want to see him." Roxas asked without turning around.

"Follow me." Katy said softly.

She led him over to a table in the library. Picking up the pencil that was resting on the wood surface, Katy finished the drawing, using one of Naminé's sketches as a guide. The drawing began to glow and the floor opened up into a staircase to what must have been the basement. Roxas followed Katy down the stairs and into the computer room. Then Roxas's head began to ache again and more images flashed in front of his eyes.

*Flashback*

_A room full of cloaked people sitting on high-backed chairs. Visions of himself running through different worlds._

_And that blindfolded man again…_

"_Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?"_

"_Shut up." Roxas replied, going in for the final blow…but it was blocked. Just before Roxas was rendered unconscious he could see the man looming over him._

_Fast forward a couple of hours later. He could hear voices._

"_Will it work?" The voice of the cloaked man_

"_If we can maintain the simulated town until Naminé finishes chaining together Sora's memories." The voice of the man in red._

"_What will happen to Roxas?"_

"_He holds half of Sora's power within him. In the end, he'll have to give it back. Until then, he'll need another personality to throw off his pursuers."_

"_Poor thing."_

"_It's the fate of a Nobody."_

_He watched as his body was beamed into a machine. A machine that had trapped him in the virtual town he'd lived in for God knows how long._

_*End Flashback*_

"When the flashes were over, Roxas was beyond pissed. Hands shaking, he drew the Keyblade.

"Roxas, don't! It won't do any good!" Katy protested.

He pushed her away and began to hack relentlessly at the computers until they were a mess of broken glass and tangled wires. After he was done expressing his rage, Katy took his hand and continued leading him through the basement. A wave of Nobodies waited for them in the next room. The two of them defeated them easily but neither were prepared for the reappearance of Axel.

"Simply amazing, Roxas."

"Axel." Roxas replied

"You really do remember me this time? I'm SO FLATTERED!" He roared, causing flames to surround only Roxas and himself. "But your too late!"

"Roxas! I can't get through! Be careful!" Katy shouted through the flames.

Roxas barley heard her. He was more focused on how the hell he suddenly had two Keyblades.

Before he even had time to question it, Roxas was dodging attacks. He made sure to steer clear of Axel when he was surrounded by fire and tried really hard not to get thrown though the makeshift arena's walls. That would probably really hurt. On top of all that, Axel had this annoying new attack where he could jump out of the ring and attack while also turning the floor to magma. That was _really_ not fun. Fortunately, after he got the pattern down, Roxas was able to win easily and he emerged victorious.

As the flames went down and the smoke cleared, Roxas remembered the rest of the flashback he'd been having before…

*Flashback*

"_You get on their bad side and they'll destroy you!" Axel protested, angrily_

"_No one will miss me." Roxas replied ruefully as he walked away._

"_That's not true…I would." Axel said to the now empty street._

*End Flashback*

"Axel…" Roxas started, feeling guilty that he just beat up his best friend

Axel looked up and smiled…sort of

"Let's meet again in the next life."

"Yeah…I'll be waiting." Roxas replied

Axel looked away as a dark corridor surrounded him

"Silly. Just because you have a next life…" And then he was gone in a rush of darkness.

The room was silent for awhile until Katy walked up beside Roxas and tentatively grabbed his hand.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly

Roxas nodded.

"Let's go." She said, pulling him through the door into the pod room.

As they walked down the hallway, Roxas stopped and gazed into two small pods.

"…Donald…Goofy…" He muttered more to himself then Katy as he gazed upon the two of the figures that had been gracing his dreams as of late.

"Yep. The famous talking animals in the flesh." Katy replied, a ghost of a smile on her face.

Katy led Roxas through the last door into the main pod room. DiZ was waiting for them.

"At last, the Keyblade's chosen one."

"Who are you talking to?" Roxas demanded. "Me? Or Sora?"

"To half of Sora of course." DiZ replied as though it was obvious. "You reside in darkness. What I need is someone who can move about the realm of light and destroy Organization XIII,"

"Why? Who are you?"

"I am a servant of the world." DiZ laughed. "And if I'm a servant, then you should consider yourself a tool, at best."

"Was that…Was that supposed to be a joke?" Roxas asked through gritted teeth. "Cause I'm not laughing!"

He ran at DiZ, Keyblade drawn, and swung despite Katy's scream of protest only to find that it was only a hologram of DiZ.

"My apologies. This is only a data based projection."

Roxas screamed in rage and continued to swing at the hologram as though he hoped it would turn into the real DiZ at any moment. The hologram disappeared and reappeared in front of the large pod in the middle of the room.

"Come here." DiZ said, sternly.

"I hate you so much." Roxas spat, still seething

"You should share some of that hatred with Sora. He's far too nice for his own good."

Somewhere behind Roxas, Katy laughed. DiZ had a point…

"No! My heart belongs to me!" Roxas stated, swinging the Keyblade through the hologram once more.

It disappeared again and the pod it had been in front of opened revealing a teenage boy in too small clothes.

"Sora." Roxas and Katy said in unison.

Roxas turned around and looked at his companion. She was staring at Sora with such adoration and longing that he had to look away.

"So…I this is your boyfriend, huh?" He asked.

"Yep. That's him." Katy replied, voice cracking.

"So, since I'm half of Sora, doesn't that mean I'm technically your boyfriend too?"

Katy laughed and nodded.

"Yeah. I guess it does."

Roxas sighed and made his decision

"I'll do it. But not for DiZ, not for Sora, but for you. Cause apparently I'm a sucker for crying girls." Roxas joked, trying to bring some levity to the situation.

Katy laughed again.

"Yeah, Sora is too. I guess you have that in common."

"Before I go…I want to try something…while it's still me and not him." Roxas said, walking closer to Katy and awkwardly placing his hands on her hips. "Is kissing me considered cheating on your boyfriend if I'm technically him? Or half of him?"

Katy bit back a laugh and shrugged before resting her hands on Roxas's shoulders.

"No idea."

"I'm gonna go with no. It'll make me feel less guilty." Roxas replied, pressing his lips gently to hers

A sense of familiarity settled over him like the first time he saw her. It was almost like he'd kissed her before. Pulling away, he looked down into her eyes.

"I'm scared." He admitted.

"Don't worry. As much as it kills me to say it, Naminé was right. You won't disappear. You'll be whole."

Roxas nodded and approached the pod slowly.

"Sora, you're a lucky guy." He spoke to the sleeping teen. "Looks like my summer vacation…is over."

Roxas looked back at Katy and smiled.

"Thank you. For everything."

"Don't worry about it." Katy replied

It all happened so fast. One second Roxas was there, then there was a flash of light that surrounded Sora and he was gone. Katy flopped to the floor, emotionally drained, and waited for Sora to wake up.

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**A/N****: 10 reviews please :)**


	7. Kings, Goodbyes, and Train Rides

**Authors Note**: **Hello my wonderful readers (If any of you are left, that is)! I know it's been a long time but this is really the first moment I've had both free and with an internet connection. My parents surprised me with one of those two week cruises for my sweet 16 and straight after that I had to go to Detroit for a wedding. Then school started and I've been scrambling to make last minute corrections to my English homework blah blah blah. You don't care about my life. I'm just going to thank everyone who read/reviewed/checked boxes all together since there are so many of you and I'm not sure if I still have all of your pennames so THANK YOU to all who did! Also, since it's been so long, you can expect another chapter out before the end of the day. Okay, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Kingdom Hearts Related. I just own Katy, my OC

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Katy ran up into the pod and shook boy inside.

"Sora? Sora!" She yelled, but no avail.

Gee, he was one deep sleeper…

"Katy!" Two excited and familiar voices exclaimed.

Katy jumped out of the pod to hug Donald and Goofy. Then the three of them continued their task to wake Sora up.

Finally he opened his eyes, and, upon seeing who was waiting for him, jumped out of the pod and knocked all of them over in what was probably supposed to be a hug.

"Donald! Goofy!" He exclaimed Katy noted his voice was much deeper than she remembered…

She laughed out loud at the though of Sora going through puberty inside the pod.

At the sound of her laughter, Sora looked over at her and wordlessly helped her off the floor.

"Katy! You look…you look…wow." Sora stuttered at a loss for words.

Over the past year, Katy had defiantly…developed. She'd gotten a little taller, lost the roundness in her face, and got, well, boobs. None of this was lost on Sora and he was presently a bit slack-jawed.

Katy rolled her eyes. Boys.

"Nice to see you too. You don't look so bad yourself, except for, you know, the too small clothes."

Sora's grin didn't falter and he leaned in and kissed her.

It kinda lasted awhile considering it had been a year and all.

Finally, Donald cleared his throat and they broke apart.

"Sorry." Katy said sheepishly.

"So, when did we go to sleep?" Goofy asked.

"Uh…well, let's see. We defeated Ansem, restored peace to the worlds, found Kairi, Oh, yeah and then we went to look for Riku. I think that's right so far?"

"Then what?" Donald demanded.

"What does your journal say, Jiminy?" Goofy asked.

Jiminy Cricket hopped up onto Sora's shoulder and opened his journal

"Gee, there's only one sentence…Thank Naminé. Hm, I wonder who that is."

Katy couldn't help but grin at the fact that no one remembered Naminé She really didn't like her.

"So how about we look around? Find out where we are?" Katy suggested.

She had to make sure they thought she had been asleep the whole time too.

The others nodded and they set off rediscover Twilight Town.

They trekked through the woods, and up Market Street until they found themselves at the entrance to the Usual Spot. Katy couldn't help but snicker when she thought of Hayner's probable reaction to them.

"Hm…you know, I think I've been to this town." Sora remarked

"What's it called?" Donald asked.

"Hmm, must have imagined it." Sora dismissed the feeling with a shrug.

The four of them entered the Usual Spot, and as expected, were given a warm welcome. Not.

"What do you want?" Hayner demanded

"Uh, nothing. Just wondering what was back here." Sora replied.

"Now you know. This is our spot."

"Gee, kid. Try some manners." Katy retorted, leaning against the wall next to Olette.

Before Hayner could respond, Pence approached them.

"Umm." He began

"What?" Sora asked

"You're new around here…right?" I'm Pence.

"Hayner, nice to meet you. But we got stuff to do so, catch ya later." Hayner introduced himself before brushing past them and leaving.

Olette slid up next to Pence a little shyly.

"My name's Olette. Hey did you finish the summer homework yet? Independent studies are the worst, huh?"

"Homework?" Sora asked, turning to the others who shrugged.

"Hey what are your names?" Pence asked.

"Oh, Sorry. Were Sora, Donald, Katy, and Goofy." Goofy introduced.

Olette and Pence exchanged gazes.

"We just met someone who was looking for you." Olette said

"He sure was in a hurry." Pence added. "He had a black coat on, so I couldn't see his face, but he had these big round ears."

"The King!" Donald exclaimed.

"Where'd you see him?" Katy asked

"At the station." Olette replied.

"The station, thanks!" Sora said with a grin.

"Well, we'd better get back to that assignment." Olette sighed. "Later."

After the two left, Donald exclaimed;

"Oh, boy! The King is trying to find us."

"Let's get to the station, quick!" Sora said, already halfway out the door, the others following.

As they made their way to Sunset Station, Katy was only half listening to the happy chatter the others were making. In her head she was mentally coaching herself to appear physically, mentally, and emotionally unaware of anything that Sora didn't yet know about. She had to make it seem like she'd been stuck in a pod for a year just like they had. Just as she was thinking up a clever story as to why she had new clothes when she realized they'd reached Sunset Station…and were promptly ambushed by Dusks. The nobodies kept coming in a never-ending wave and eventually they all slumped to the ground, extremely beat. And that's when King Mickey decided to make his grand entrance. He literally jumped down from the station clock tower and disposed of the remaining Dusks as though they were made of tissue paper. It was safe to say that the four were a bit gob-smacked at the King's sudden appearance. Donald and Goofy literally pushed Sora and to the ground in an attempt to scramble over him.

"Your Majesty?" Donald asked, not daring to believe that the King was _actually_ there.

The ears were a bit of a giveaway…

"Shhh." Mickey hissed looking around as though he was afraid they were being watched. "You gotta board the train and leave town! The train knows the way."

He took a very familiar looking pouch of munny out of the pocket of his black robe and handed it to Katy. "Here, take this."

Katy looked at him strangely, wondering how he got it when she knew that Cloaky was the last one to have it, but Mickey gave her a sharp look that clearly said not to say anything. She nodded and took the pouch from him. They all took their eyes off him for less than a split second and he was running back towards Market Street, Donald and Goofy calling after him.

"The King…was that really him?" Sora asked

"It coulda been…Yep, I know it was!" Goofy exclaimed

"Now we know he's okay!" Donald cheered

"The King was locked in the realm of darkness, right?" Sora asked

Katy rolled her eyes, knowing what he was getting at.

"Uh huh." Goofy answered.

"But we just saw him…"

"Yep." Donald replied

"So is the King's here, that means…"

"Riku's here too! Yes! Huzzah! I can't _wait_ to see _that_ guy again." Katy said sarcastically

Sora looked over at her and frowned

"But…he apologized to you, didn't he? And Ryan turned out to be okay, right?"

"Yeah, but in case you haven't known me for the past couple of years, I tend to hold a grudge."

Sora rolled his eyes laughing a little.

"Yeah, I guess you do." He turned to the others. "Well, me and Katy are gonna go look for Riku. Then we can all go back to the Islands. Just like I promised." Sora added with a grin at Katy before addressing Donald and Goofy once more. "What are you guys gonna do?"

The pair exchanged a looks.

"Gawrsh, Sora. Do ya have to ask?"

Sora laughed.

"What's so funny?" Donald demanded

"Your FACE!" Sora managed to get out between pleas of laughter.

The talking animals looked at each other and they too began to laugh.

"So what do you say, guys? Let's stick together for one more journey." Sora asked.

The others nodded and began to walk towards the station doors, save Katy who was still standing in the same spot with a stupid smile on her face.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked, waving a hand in front of her face."

"Yeah, fine, just…could you run that by me again? The whole thing about the Islands?"

Sora looked at her strangely, but repeated his statement anyway.

"I said that when we find Riku we could all go back to the Islands. Just like I promised. Why, don't you remember?"

"_I _remember. I'm just surprised _you_ remember."

"How could I forget? I promised. Twice. And the second time you were kinda dying. That's not exactly an easy thing to forget…" He trailed off, resting his arms behind his head.

"Right…just checking. We _were_ asleep for a really long time after all. And on top of that, guys tend to forget important things. Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries." Katy said with a smirk before starting towards the doors.

"Hey!" Sora protested, running after her.

They caught up with Donald and Goofy who were waiting next to a purple train adorned with stars. As they drew closer, a familiar voice called out

"Hey! Wait up!"

The four turned around in time to see Hayner, Pence and Olette skid to a stop in front of them.

"Hey, Sora…" Hayner began

"What?" He replied, a bit confused as to why they were there.

"Nothing, but…"

"We came to see you off." Pence cut in. "It just seemed like something we oughta do."

"Oh…really? Thanks!"

"Yeah, that's really nice of you." Katy added, just as surprised. It's not like they _actually_ knew them, only technically if that at all.

They bought their tickets, noting the fact that the pouch that The King gave them matched the one that Olette had, and made their way to the platform.

"I can't help but feeling that we won't see this town again." Sora said more to himself than the others.

There was a small awkward silence before Goofy asked;

"Why not?"

"You're thinking too much." Donald huffed

"Yeah, you're right!" Sora said with a shaky laugh

Katy didn't have the heart to tell him she felt the same way. It was a kinda thing that went along with being his Protector. They often got the same gut feelings on important things.

"Okay, let's go!" Sora continued, managing a small smile.

Donald and Goofy nodded and boarded the train while Sora and Katy said their last goodbyes to Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

"Well, bye." Sora said while Katy gave a small wave.

"Hey, Sora, Katy? You sure we haven't met before?" Hayner asked, studying him closely

The spiky-haired teen thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"Positive. Have you, Katy?"

"Nope." She lied, smoothly "Why do you ask?"

"I dunno." Hayner replied with a goofy grin.

They all laughed at his antics until Sora felt something dripping down his cheek.

"Huh?" He gasped audibly, wiping the lone tear away.

"You okay?" Olette asked, concerned

"Y-yeah. Don't know where it came from." He stuttered.

Katy looked down at the floor. She had a pretty idea where, or rather who, it came from.

"Pull it together." Hayner joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Sora grinned at them and grabbed Katy's hand.

"Right, bye!" He called, tugging his girlfriend onto the train.

The two teens waved goodbye once more just as the doors closed. Hayner, Pence, and Olette watched as the train left the station, each of them wondering why it felt like they were losing two longtime friends even though they barley knew them. Meanwhile, back on the train, Sora was wondering the same thing. He took the munny pouch the King gave them out of his pocket and took out the small blue crystal that had been inside. He held it up to the window and watched as the sunlight sparkled through it.

"You know…I'm sad." He said out loud, still looking at the crystal.

"We'll be back." Donald reassured him.

"Yeah. We can visit Hayner and those guys again." Goofy added.

Suddenly, white light flashed from behind the windows and Twilight Town disappeared from behind them. In its place was an endless expanse of Gummi space and a glowing, green track that looked like it went on indefinitely. Katy sighed and took a seat next to Sora. It was gonna be a long journey, and she wasn't talking about the train ride.

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**A/N****: For those of you wondering, I haven't forgotten about Cassie, Ryan, and Jordan! They will be making appearances VERY soon! I won't ask for 10 reviews because I'll be lucky to get any at this point :)**


	8. Yen Sid Tells Us Stuff We Already Know

**Authors Note****: Thanks for the understanding reviews! You guys are awesome and I actually have your names this time! Thanks a ton to: kingdomdisney, SexyZexy, SpringBorn, Makii-chan, and soraroxas365 for reviewing! Also thanks to Dracula-key for adding TOE to his favorites. I tried to get this out last night, but my Mac, well, broke. I had to go to the Apple Store earlier and get a new one so now it's all good! Hope you enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. The only thing I do own is my OC, Katy.

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After the first hour, Donald and Goofy were already fast asleep in the seats across from the two teens. Katy was leaning on Sora's shoulder, ready to join them in dreamland when Sora broke the silence.

"Where do you think we're going?"

"Not a clue. Hopefully someplace where we can get you some clothes that fit." Katy replied, stifling a yawn.

"How come _you_ got new clothes?" Sora pouted.

"Well, I got tired of waiting for you and the talking animals to wake your lazy selves up, so I decided to go shopping." She explained, earning a laugh from the boy beside her.

Although she had not gotten them while waiting for Sora and the others to wake up, Katy had gone on a small shopping spree. Gone was her pink skull t-shirt, holey denim skirt, and black leggings. Instead she wore a red tank top that had Paramore written across the chest in sharpie, courtesy of her own creativity, a slightly baggy pair of jeans, and her beloved converse high tops. She also had the black hoodie that Jordan had given her the day she escaped from the hospital tied around her waist.

"It's obviously been awhile. Since we beat Ansem I mean."

"Yeah, long enough that we didn't fit in our clothes…" Katy agreed, her voice trailing off.

Before they could continue their conversation, the train came to an abrupt stop, jerking Donald and Goofy from their slumber. They all clamored off train and studied their surroundings. They were on a rather small piece of land suspended in Gummi space. Atop this piece of land was a tall, winding, castle tower. As they approached the tower, the train disappeared. Sora laughed nervously

"There goes our ride…"

As they got closer they found a very…er…_large_ dog blocking the way forward, apparently peering inside through the slightly ajar door.

"What's going on?" Donald asked

The dog laughed

"I sent some of my lackeys inside to see if the master of this here tower's as big and tough as they say. Word is, he's a real powerful sorcerer, which would make him the perfect bodyguard for me. See, it don't matter how tough he is—once he's a Heartless, he'll do as I say."

Oh, boy. Looks like your cover's blown, dude.

"A Heartless!" Donald cried, he and the others taking fighting stances.

"That's right." The dog answered. "They're those things that come outta the darkness in folks' hearts. Why, with all those Heartless at her side, my dear friend Maleficent is gonna conquer everything! A

Katy, relieved that she no longer writhed in pain at the sound of her name, was amused that this guy, whoever he was, thought that Maleficent was still around. The other's thought so too, apparently since they dropped their stances and exchanged looks. Meanwhile the dog just kept rambling…

"And since I got me a debt to pay, I'm goin' 'round to a bunch of different worlds and buildin' an army of Heartless, special for her. Why am I talkin' to you pipsqueaks anyway? Go on scram! I'm behind schedule as it is."

"You oughta find something nicer to do." Goofy suggested.

"Says who?" The dog demanded, finally turning around.

And what do you know! It looks like he knows our fuzzy companio

"Wha…AHH! It's you!" He exclaimed

"Pete!" Donald and Goofy cried in unison.

"What are you two nimrods doing here?" Pete demanded.

"Hey! No one insults the talking animals except me!" Katy said, earning a glare from Donald.

"What are you doing here?" Donald countered

"You know him?" Sora asked, looking at each of them in turn.

"Yes, Sora. They know each other. Try to keep up, yeah?" Katy replied, rolling her eyes.

"Pete's been causin' trouble for ages!" Goofy explained. "His Majesty banished him to another dimension a long time ago. I wonder how he escaped."

The dog…er…_Pete_ laughed.

"You wanna know how, eh? Well, Maleficent busted me out, that's how! And now your world—no, no, no, all the worlds—are gonna belong to yours truly. Cause Maleficent's gonna help me conquer 'em."

"Maleficent, huh?" Sora asked, bemused.

The four of them burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Pete yelled. "Why, Maleficent's power is so great—"

"She's toast!" Sora managed to get out between snickers.

"Ding dong the wicked witch is dead." Katy added, still giggling.

"Whaddya mean?" Pete asked, alarmed.

They just kept laughing.

"You! So you're the ones that did it!"

"Well…we _might_ have had _something_ to do with it." Sora teased, resting his hands behind his head and grinning.

Pete growled, enraged and called out to hid lackeys

"Heartless squad! Round up!

Katy snorted

"Heartless squad?"

It would have been funnier if no _actual_ Heartless appeared, but alas, this was the story of Sigh.

Anyway…

They took down the Heartless easily…too easily for Pete's liking apparently.

"You just wait. Nobody, and I mean nobody, messes with the mighty Pete!" He threatened

"So _'Mighty Pete'," _Sora began sarcastically. "Who lives in this tower, anyway?"

"Oh, ya don't know, eh? Well, it's old Yen Sid. 'Course he's probably a Heartless by now…"

"WAK! Master Yen Sid lives here?" Donald exclaimed. Running into the tower.

"Yen Sid is the King's teacher." Goofy explained, helpfully.

"Wow. Sounds powerful!" Sora replied

"Let's go find him!" Katy suggested, running after Donald, the others following, leaving Pete behind.

They made their way up the many flights of stairs, the Heartless getting stronger and more frequent as they ascended.

"Heartless, Heartless, Heartless!" Donald exclaimed. "Thing's haven't changed one bit!"

"I agree with the duckling. Didn't we kill Ansem to, you know, get _rid_ of the Heartless?" Katy huffed, annoyed.

"Good thing we're on the job, then." Goofy said, trying to brighten the mood.

"Always the optimist." Katy sighed, shaking her head.

"So the worlds aren't at peach after all?" Sora asked, the familiar "kicked puppy" look on his face.

Katy sighed again.

"Let's go find this Yen Sid guy. Maybe he knows what's going on."

The others agreed and they walked up one more flight of stairs before reaching the Sorcerer's Loft. Upon entering, Donald and Goofy immediately bowed respectfully, leaving Sora and Katy confused as to what to do. They decided that staring blankly at the dude in the blue robe was a good idea.

"Master Yen Sid! It's and honor!" Donald said without looking up from the ground.

Oh, the dude in the robe is Master Yen Sid…my bad.

"Hey there!" Sora said with a wave, causing Donald to have a minor heart attack…

"Sora, Katy, show some respect!" He hissed

The King waved his demand away and regarded the two teenagers in front of him.

"So, you must be Sora and Katy. Now then, have you seen the King yet?"

"Yes we did, Master. But we didn't get a chance to talk to him." Goofy explained

"Yes…the King had been quite busy of late. Therefore, it would seem the task of instructing you four falls upon my shoulders. You have a perilous journey in front of you. You must be well prepared."

"You mean…we have to go on another quest? I was looking forward to finding my friend Riku, so we could go back to the Islands" Sora asked.

"Yeah, and I was kinda hoping we could do something less…life threatening." Katy agreed.

Yen Sid gave them a small, sad smile.

"Yes. I know. However, everything in your journey is connected. Though I can't promise it will be less "Life threatening" as you said, you will defiantly be better prepared. Whether you will return to the Islands…Whether you will return alone or with your friends…And, whether or not the Islands will still be there. And the Keys that connects them all are you two children."

"We're… the keys?" Sora asked.

Katy snorted.

"It's not painfully obvious to you by now?"

Sora had no rebuttal to that. Instead he summoned the Keyblade.

"Chosen wielder of the Keyblade! You are the key that will, aided by its keeper, open the door to light.

The two teens nodded robotically.

Yen Sid then summoned a rather large and heavy looking book.

"This book contains valuable knowledge you will need for your journey. Study it carefully. Once you have finished, we will speak of the enemies you will surely confront.

The book contained nothing but complicated riddles that made their heads spin. Approaching Yen Sid once more, Sora asked the question on everyone's mind

"But wait a sec—how come the Heartless are still running around?"

Katy wanted to know the answer to that one too. She hadn't seen any Heartless in the past year. Only Nobodies. Now Sora wakes up and Heartless galore! Not exactly what you'd call fair…then again, life rarely is.

"Your past endeavors did prevent an immense effusion of Heartless from the great darkness; make no mistake about that. However, the Heartless are darkness made real—and darkness yet lingers in every heart. The heartless are fewer. But while darkness exists in a single heart, it will be difficult to eliminate them."

The four sighed.

"Gawrsh, that must mean if everybody's heart was full of light, them Heartless'd just go away!" Goofy reasoned

Now, it is time to speak of the enemies you will encounter…" Yen Sid continued.

Katy decided to tune this part our. DiZ had explained this to her during her first couple of weeks in Twilight Town. Since Organization XIII had made themselves known, there were now three foes to worry about: Heartless, Nobodies, and the Organization themselves. She knew what Nobodies were and how they came to be, but she feigned interest for appearances sake. She needed to look like she didn't know. Before she knew it, Yen Sid sent Sora into the adjoining room to get new clothes (Thank GOD!). Donald and Goofy went with him, but Yen Sid asked her to stay behind.

"I'm going to get right to the point, Katyana. You know that you must never, under any circumstances, tell Sora of the duties you had while he was asleep?"

"Yes, I was told." Katy answered politely.

"Good. It's imperative that he's kept in the dark about this.

"Am I allowed to ask why?" Katy asked

"He needs to stay focused on the task at hand. We can't have him worrying about his and other people's Nobodies."

Katy was about to disagree when Sora reemerged from the other room looking, well, only one word for it, _hot._

"Dude…these look sooooooo much better." Katy gushed, looking him up and down.

Sora blushed.

"T-thanks." He stuttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Come this way. I have something to show you all." Yen Sid told them, motioning to them to follow.

He led them over to a crescent moon shaped window where they could clearly see a very familiar looking ship.

"Hey! It's our Gummi Ship!" Donald exclaimed, jumping up and down in place.

He reminded Katy of a little girl who'd received a pony for Christmas.

"So you guys ready to go?" Sora asked.

The three of them nodded.

"Now, now. Just a moment." Yen Sid said, stopping them in their tracks. "Because of your previous endeavors, the worlds have returned to their original states. That means the pathways between them have disappeared."

"How are we supposed to get around?" Goofy asked, puzzled

"If what the King suspected is true, the worlds have prepared new pathways you may use." Yen Sid explained. "These pathways can be utilized by unlocking special gates. How these gates are opened, I'm afraid I don't know. However, the Keyblade will serve as your guide. When a beam of light radiates from the Keyblade, return to the Gummi Ship. Though the worlds may seem far apart and out of reach, They nonetheless remain connected by invisible ties. As do our hearts."

"Our hearts are connected." Sora summarized

"That is correct." Yen Sid replied with a smile.

"Okay, I think we got it, chief." Katy said, growing impatient.

"Just be warned, as you travel, the Heartless and the Nobodies will be using their own paths: corridors of darkness to travel from world to world. They may be attempting to link these dark pathways to the gates between the worlds."

"Hey! That's not fair!" Donald protested.

Katy scoffed.

"_Life's_ not fair, duckling. Then you die."

Donald scowled at her and Sora tried to hold back a snicker.

"Well then, that's all the information I can give you. Go forth Sora, Katy, Donald, and Goofy. Everyone is waiting."

"Okay, let's get going." Sora said, grabbing Katy's hand and starting for the door.

"And remember what I told you, Katyana." Yen Sid called out to them as they left the tower.

"What did he tell you?" Sora asked, curious

"You know, the usual. The Keyblade Master is your responsibility; you must constantly be on alert, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda. Old stuff."

"Don't worry about it. I know you got my back. And I got yours." Sora said, grinning.

Katy smiled sunnily at him

"Thanks, that actually makes me feel better…believe it or not."

They boarded the Gummi ship, mentally preparing themselves for anything.

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Meanwhile, back inside Yen Sid's tower, the three fairies who gave Sora his new clothes were having a minor crisis.

Make that major…

"My goodness! What is that?" The blue fairy exclaimed, referring to the crow that flew in through the window and brought with it a very familiar cloak.

"Haven't we seen that before?" She continued with concern.

"Yes, dear. I wonder whose it was…" The green fairy wondered.

"Oh! Malefic—" The blue fairy began, but clamped her hand over her mouth before she could finish the name.

"No! We mustn't remember her name! Oh, dear…" The red fairy worried, growing a bit frightened.

"She was a mean 'ol witch. Oh, no! The memories are coming back! What'll we do? Oh, what'll we do?" The blue fairy exclaimed as the cloak began to move by itself, slowly taking form.

"Perhaps we should tell Master Yen Sid." The green fairy suggested.

"Yes! That's what we must do, hurry!" The red fairy agreed as all three of them fled the room.

Just as the door closed behind them, the witch named Maleficent rose from her cloak and the newly remembered memories and began to cackle.

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**A/N****: Uh, oh! Maleficent's back! Please review, next chapter will be out Wednesday or Thursday!**


	9. Reunions, Retellings, and Riku

**Authors Note: ****Hello, wonderful readers! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, even though it was mostly filler. I tried to make it as interesting as possible. I also want to apologize for the grammar errors that were in there. I posted it at like two in the morning and I didn't really proofread. Anyway, thanks so much to: kingdomdisney, Dracula-key, Makii-chan, soraroxas365, 1****st**** class Soldier Girl13, SpringBorn, Wormo the Green Lantern, and CatchingForRain for their reviews. Also a big thanks to WalkingDisaster16 for adding TOE to his/her favorite stories list. So, I'll stop rambling now so you can read the chapter! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy, Ryan, Cassie, and Jordan, my OCs

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Blissfully unaware about Maleficent's return, our four heroes climbed aboard the Gummi Ship and were greeted by the ships engineers Chip n' Dale.

If chipmunks were engineering MY spaceship, I'd be concerned…

"Howdy, everyone! How ya doin'? " Dale asked cheerfully.

They didn't wait for an answer before saying "happy flying!" In unison and handing over the controls.

"Only one?" Sora groaned referring to the amount of worlds, or lack of amount, that they could visit.

"That's no good." Donald agreed.

"Hey, isn't that Hollow Bastion?" Katy pointed out.

"Yeah! I think it is!" Goofy exclaimed

They quickly set course, letting Donald drive since he'd been away from his precious ship for so long, and after a short flight plagued by Heartless, arrived at Hollow Bastion.

However, they weren't the only one's visiting…

"Maleficent? Maleficent!" Pete called out as he roamed the Halls of Maleficent's castle. "Maybe they really did finish her off…" he sighed, slumping in defeat. "This castle sure isn't what I expected. No shine, no nothin'. Now what's gonna happen to our plan?"

While he was rambling to himself, the crow that had brought Maleficent's cloak to Yen Sid's tower had flown to the castle and perched itself on one of the tower's walls. It cawed to get Pete's attention and he whipped around, eyes bugging out when he saw it.

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Sora, Katy, and the others ran through Hollow Bastion, noting how much better the place looked.

"I wonder if Leon and the gang are doing okay." Donald though out loud, the others nodding in agreement.

"Probably as good as it can get." Katy replied, warily watching as some Heartless disappeared from a nearby building.

"Looks like we're gonna have to do some fightin'." Goofy said, also noting the armoured creatures.

They passed many shops that hadn't been there before as they made their way to the center of town. Suddenly, beams of light shot began to shoot up from the ground all around them.

"What's happening?" Donald demanded

"That's the town's defense mechanism." A familiar voice answered.

They looked around before spotting an even more familiar ninja—excuse me—_great _ninja on the roof of a building.

"Yuffie!" Sora exclaimed.

The black haired girl grinned but it faded into a look of alarm.

"Look out!" she cried as several Dusks appeared.

They took care of them quickly (the defense mechanism was a big help) and when they were gone, Yuffie jumped gracefully down from the rooftops.

"Hey, guys. I see your still in top form." She said with a grin

You think she would have helped them take out the Dusks…

"What'd you expect?" Sora asked with a laugh. "Looks like you've been doing good too."

"Well what did YOU expect?" Yuffie countered.

"How's pretty boy and the rest?" Katy asked, referring to Leon and the others.

"Great!"

"Hey, Yuffie. Have you seen the King and Riku?" Sora asked

Katy tried and failed to suppress an eye-roll. He was obviously going to ask every living soul they met this question.

"Nope." Yuffie answered, cheerily, running partially down the street before turning back around.

"But I had a feeling I'd see you guys again."

Sora smiled and said in an exaggeratedly deep voice

"We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other."

"Is that supposed to be Leon?" Yuffie asked with a snicker.

Sora nodded and the others laughed.

"Everyone's working on stuff over at Merlin's house. C'mon, we have a surprise for you, Katy." Yuffie said over her shoulder as she ran off.

Now curious, the others hurried over to Merlin's house. Upon entering, they saw Aerith, Cid, and Leon standing with their backs to them. A ways to the left stood two very familiar looking people.

"OH MY GOD!" Katy shrieked, running over to Cassie and Ryan and tackling them in a hug.

"Katy, as nice as it is to see you, your crushing my ribs." Ryan choked out, sighing when she released him from her death grip.

After everyone said their hellos to one another, Sora, Leon and the others began to talk about the restorations going on in Hollow Bastion. Meanwhile, Katy, Ryan, and Cassie were having a conversation of their own…Katy had just finished explaining how she'd found Sora and what they could and couldn't tell him. It didn't really end too well…

"What do you mean he doesn't know?" Ryan hissed

"Shhh! Do you _want_ him to hear you?" Katy whisper-yelled back

"He must be seriously dense. How does he think you got to Twilight Town? Magic? You were in a hospital on Earth! You had a giant gaping _hole_ in your chest for God's sake! Does he think something like that just heals over night? Talk about oblivious…" Ryan exclaimed, his rant accompanied by violent hand gestures.

Katy didn't really know how to respond. Actually, Ryan had a point. Sora hadn't even asked her about how she got to Twilight Town after he saw Cassie and Ryan take her back home. Either he was, as Ryan pointed out, dense, or he _thought_ he knew how she got there…

"Naminé!" Katy blurted out.

"Who now?" Cassie asked

"Naminé. She's the chick that put Sora's memories back the right way!"

"Put his memories…what the _hell_ are you talking about?" Ryan demanded

Katy backtracked a bit and went on to explain what happened in Castle Oblivion so her friends could better understand.

"Okay, so you think this Naminé chick put a memory in Sora's head that explains how you got to Twilight Town." Ryan summarized

"Yes." Katy replied.

"So why didn't she, I don't know, _tell you_?"

"Well we weren't exactly best friends. She must've thought that this would piss me off. She was right. I'm royally pissed off right mow." Katy huffed.

"So why didn't that DiZ dude mention anything. He must have been thinking about this too, right?" Cassie asked

"He and Cloaky had a lot on their minds, worrying about the Organization and Roxas and everything."

The conversation continued with how their lives had been going. After Katy had disappeared from Disney Castle, Cassie and Ryan had hung out there for a while. They even were able to get in contact with Jordan to make sure she hadn't been arrested for impersonating a hospital patient.

"She was seriously pissed that we couldn't go get her, but it would have been too much of a hassle to go all the way back. Not to mention _we_ would have probably been arrested for stealing the Queens ship." Cassie said, chewing at her nails.

Katy narrowed her eyes. Cassie only bit her nails when she was nervous about something. Something must have been up.

Ryan, oblivious to the black-haired girl's strange behavior, continued with the story.

"So after we talked to Tate, it started to get weird. We remembered you, and knew you left to go find someone, but we couldn't remember who. The Queen suggested we go to Hollow Bastion and talk to some of your old friends. We took her advice, obviously and they said the same thing. They knew _you_ but they couldn't remember who the kid was that you followed around. Then a couple of days ago, we literally just woke up and were like "Oh, yeah! Sora!" Then you guys showed up and, well, here we are." Ryan finished, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Geez, what a mess." Katy groaned, trying to wrap her mind around all of this information.

"Yeah, I'll say. Anyway, good luck with all this, Kate." Ryan replied, distractedly while he slowly gravitated towards Yuffie.

Katy looked over at Cassie questioningly and the dark-haired girl shook her head.

"Boy's got a thing for her. I told him he's in way over his head; that chick could kick his ass seven ways to Sunday." She explained, gnawing at her cuticles

Katy slapped her hand away from her mouth.

"Stop that! It's gross! Just tell me what's up already…before you chew all the skin of your fingers."

Cassie looked over towards the others nervously, before pulling Katy further away from them to ensure they were no longer in earshot.

"I've been having these dreams…about Riku."

Katy choked on her spit

"Dude! TMI!" She shrieked, causing the others to look over.

Both girls waved sheepishly before returning to their - hopefully still private – conversation.

"Not like that, you pervert!" Cassie hissed, "I mean dreams like Protector stuff!"

"Oh…I knew that." Katy said, managing a grin before becoming serious. "So, do you know where he is?"

Cassie rolled her eyes.

"No. If I knew that, I would have said something to the others. I can't even really see him…just feel what he's feeling. Sometimes if the emotion is strong enough I can get a blurry picture, but he's always in this huge black coat, so it's hard to see. But I'm positive it's him. It felt like it did the last time." She explained, referring to the time when Riku had gotten a hold of the Keyblade and she'd been dubbed his Protector.

"Does he know your there? Like last time?"

"No…I don't think so. I think that sometimes he suspects _someone's_ there, but I don't think he knows it's me. Hell, I don't even think he knows who I am. He's only really heard my voice before. I never showed him my face."

Katy groaned again and rubbed her temples. One more thing she had to worry about.

As if she read her friend's thoughts, Cassie rested a hand on her shoulder

"Look, don't worry about the Riku stuff. I'll handle it. You just keep Sora and yourself alive, kay?"

"Ok, but keep me in the loop alright. And don't mention anything to Sora, he'll wind up dragging you with us and using you as a freaking prophetess." Katy replied, only half joking.

Cassie giggled, but sobered quickly.

"I feel bad keeping all this important stuff from him. He _is_ the Keyblade Master after all."

"All the more reason to keep it from him." Katy replied, grimly.

Cassie sighed, but nodded and both girls rejoined the rest of the Restoration Committee in the center of the room. Katy managed to catch a snippet of Sora and Merlin's conversation about Sora's forgotten magic.

"I suppose I can lend you a spell." The wizard sighed, handing a small orb to Sora.

Upon seeing Katy lingering, he beckoned her over and handed her one as well.

"There. You'll have to get the others on your own, I'm afraid."

Sora nodded and turned to Katy.

"C'mon! Leon wants us to show us something at the Bailey. He already left like five minutes ago."

"Alright, let's get going." Katy said, following Him, Donald and Goofy out the door.

"Oh, this is for you…from Leon and the others." Sora said, fishing a plastic card out of his pocket.

It was an official membership card for the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, complete with her name on the back.

"That was nice of them." Katy muttered to herself, her thought ending with a small yelp as Sora grabbed her hand and literally dragged her towards the Bailey.

If she'd been given the chance to voice her opinion, she would have suggested taking their time getting there. She had a feeling that whatever Leon wanted to show them wasn't going to be pretty…

And unfortunately, being the Protector meant her feelings were never wrong.

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**A/N****: I'm gonna wrap it up there, only because that was a lot of filler/plot and I don't want this chapter to get ridiculously long with the rest of Hollow Bastion. I'll try to have the next chapter up this weekend. I need to get all my homework out of the way first. Please Review!**


	10. Hollow Bastion's Sorrows

**Authors Note: ****Hello, everyone! I apologize for not putting this out this weekend, but I wanted to wait until fanfiction was working properly, lest something go wrong with the upload… and I wanted to be sure you'd be able to read it. I actually have two chapters I'm posting today and look out for another one tomorrow. After that, don't expect anything earlier than** **Tuesday because I'm going on vacation (yes, again.). Anyway, thanks to my reviewers: soraroxas365, kingdomdisney, SpringBorn, Wormo the Green Lantern, and Deadly Papegoja. Thanks also to my box checkers: Andi800, Deadly Papegoja, and XxMidnightRainxX. And, thanks to all of you who read, but didn't leave a review. If you are one of those people and you are reading this rather long authors note, please consider leaving a review. Despite what you may have heard, I do care what you think! Ok, I'm all done talking now. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. I only own Katy, Cassie, Ryan, and Jordan, my OCs

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After freeing her wrist from Sora's grasp, Katy was actually able to assist in the many Heartless battles that they encountered on their way to meet Leon. Finally, they shook off enough enemies to make it to the small alcove where the stairs were located. They climbed up and found themselves (after a few more Heartless spats) at the Bailey. Leon was waiting for them, slouched against a wall next to a large window. He nodded at the scenery beyond it.

"Look at that."

The four friends looked out and gasped. There was Maleficent's castle, or what was left of it, in the distance surrounded by a large black mass…that was moving…and had eyes.

" We want to restore Hollow Bastion to what it used to be. Who knows? Maybe even something better. There's still a lot to do, but I'm sure we can handle everything—except…for that." Leon explained

"Yeah, I can see where _that_ could be a problem." Katy agreed, looking warily at the ginormous black sea of Heartless.

"That's not even the worst part. Look over there."

Following his gaze the others watched as a pair of Dusks made their way towards the Bailey followed by others.

"We'll handle 'em!" Sora said, confidently.

Katy snorted

"Gee, aren't you the optimist."

"You don't think we can do it?" Sora asked.

"The Dusks we can take. The zillions of Heartless? Not a chance in hell. At least not with just the three of us."

Sora pulled a determined face.

"Sure we can!"

"That's good to hear." Leon cut in before Katy could protest again. "So, Sora—do you know what's going on here?"

"There's this guy, Pete, who's been going around plotting with the Heartless. But he's not smart enough to tie his own shoes—" Sora started

"Yeah, defiantly a few fries short of a Happy Meal." Katy agreed.

She received three four blank looks in return.

"Oh, right. No McDonalds here…gotcha…never-mind."

"Anyway, the one's we need to worry about are the Nobodies." Sora continued.

"And those Organization XIII guys in charge, too!" Goofy added

"You called?" A disembodied voice echoed around them.

Katy immediately drew her Keyblades and ran out of the alcove with the window, scoping the area.

"You're doing well…" The voice continued.

Sora ran up next to Katy, Donald and Goofy trailing behind him.

"Who's that?" He asked, drawing his own Keyblade as well.

"This calls for a celebration…" The voice trailed off leaving an obscene amount of Nobodies in its wake.

Katy had _no freaking clue_ where Donald and Goofy went, but she was glad that Leon had finally decided to pitch in. She was starting to think he lugged that gunblade around to try to pick up chicks. _Try_ of course being the key word in that sentence.

Anyway,

While Leon attempted to keep the Nobodies from surging forward, ("Get the one on your left! No your OTHER left, dammit!") Katy and Sora, hung back by the gate's to keep the Nobodies that slipped passed Leon from invading the town. In addition to Dusks, the mysterious voice had also summoned Creepers and Samurai; two of the nastier Nobodies DiZ told her about. When the whole fiasco was finally over, the three of them were exhausted. Katy was just about to join Sora where he'd collapsed, panting, on the floor when the voice piped up again.

"The Keyblade. A truly marvelous weapon. Were it only in more…capable hands…"

A chorus of other voices joined the speaking voice as it laughed, enraging Sora further.

"Show yourselves!"

"Look, up there!" Katy exclaimed, pointing to an overlook a ways away from them.

Six black clad figures were looking down on them, their facial expressions unreadable since their hoods hid their faces.

"Organization XIII!" Goofy cried.

"Good, now we can settle this." Sora said, gripping the Keyblade.

Katy said nothing. She was too busy praying that if Axel or Demyx were up there that they'd keep their big mouths shut and not say anything to her. It would be a little hard to explain to Sora how she knew them…considering he wasn't supposed to know and all.

"What a shame." The original voice mocked. "And here I thought we could be friends."

The figures disappeared one by one through dark corridors.

"Hey!" Donald exclaimed, running in the direction of the overlook. He stopped in his tracks when one of the figures materialized right in front of him.

"What's the big idea?"

"Oopsy-daisy." The figure drawled.

Katy mentally sighed in relief that his voice wasn't a familiar one.

"Move!" Sora demanded

"Now, do you think that's polite? Shutting me down like that?"

Katy scoffed

"_You're_ lecturing _us_ about _manners?_ Newsflash buddy, it's also "not polite" to sick Nobodies on people."

"I don't believe I was talking to you, Princess." The figure sneered.

"What is it with these people and giving me nicknames?" Katy muttered to herself, too softly for Sora and the other's to hear.

"I said get out of the way!" Sora said, still angry

"As if! You can talk all you want, but that won't change a thing."

"Then we're gonna MAKE you move." Donald threatened

"See, that would work—if I were just any old dude. 'Cept I'm not. I'm with the Organization! Nothing "any old" about me!"

"Congrats! Would you like a medal?" Katy retorted

"Tough talk for someone who stood on the sidelines while his Nobody flunkeys did the fighting." Sora added, smugly

"Oh, dear. I think you got the wrong impression." The figure replied

"You gonna cry?" Sora asked with a smirk

"As if! Why don't I remind you how tough the crowd you're dealing with really is?"

"Remind me?" Sora asked, confused

"_Damn it!"_ Katy cursed in her head.

The figure laughed

"That's RIGHT! He used to give me that same exact look."

It was now taking all of Katy's willpower not to go over there and strangle this guy, whoever he was, for brining up Roxas.

Sora, still looking confused, glared at the man

"I guess you think you can psych me out by saying really random stuff!"

"Gee, I don't know." He mocked.

There was a long pause before the figure chuckled to himself and gave the quartet a wave.

"Play nice, kids."

"Wait!" Donald exclaimed, trying to reach him before he left through the dark corridor.

No such luck.

"Nuts! He got away."

"That was weird. WHO gave him the same look?"

Before Katy could begin damage control, Goofy answered;

"Ya know, I think he was just trying to confuse you."

"Yeah, your right. Only one me!" Sora reasoned with a grin.

Needless to say, some of the color returned to Katy's face and she let out the breath he didn't know she'd been holding. She just happened to look down at the ground and saw that Sora's Restoration Committee card was lying by his feet.

"Here, Sora. It must've fallen out of your pocket." Katy said, tossing the card to him.

Before he could thank her, the card began to glow and floated out of his hand. If _that_ weren't creepy enough, the Keyblade began to jerk around in Sora's hand, apparently trying to wrench his arm out of its socket.

"What the-?" Sora exclaimed, attempting to keep hold of his weapon

A familiar blue laser light shot out of the Keyblade and, apparently, unlocked a new pathway to more worlds.

"Oh, boy!" Donald exclaimed.

"Sorry to run Leon, but other world's are calling." Sora explained

Leon nodded.

"Organization XIII…they look tough. Be careful out there."

They all nodded.

"See you soon." Sora said, running in the direction of the Gummi ship.

Katy began to run after him, but doubled back.

"Hey, Leon. Tell Ryan and Cassie I said goodbye, okay?"

"Will do. Good luck, Katy. Watch your back out there."

"Don't worry about me, pretty boy. I'll be fine." Katy said over her shoulder as she raced to catch up with Sora and the others.

"That's Leon!" He called after her.

She pretended not to hear him.

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Back on the Gummi ship, Sora was having a rather disturbing conversation with the chipmunks…apparently Twilight Town had mysteriously disappeared. So, after that initial shock, Donald took the controls and set course for a new world.

"Ugh. Ry and Cass are gonna KILL me for leaving without going to see them." Katy groaned, adding a mental "again" to her statement.

"Aw, I'm sure they'll get over it." Sora reassured her. "Besides, we'll come back soon."

"Yeah, if Hollow Bastion doesn't mysteriously disappear like Twilight Town."

Sora pulled her over to him and kissed her lightly.

"It won't, don't worry."

Deciding not to protest his lack of logic Katy sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, watching as Donald blew up countless Heartless ships.

"I hope you're right."

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**A/N****: Next chapter will be up before the end of the night. I have to finish writing it. Review in the meantime please :)**


	11. The Land of Tiny, Loud Mouthed Dragons

**Authors Note****: Okay, here's chapter 11. Thanks to Innked Lady Corpse and kingdomdisney for reviewing.**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just my OCs Katy, Ryan, Cassie, and Jordan

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In a clearing surrounded by bamboo, just outside of a destroyed army camp, a girl who was dressed as a soldier peered through the tall stalks, watching an evil looking man as he surveyed the destruction. He faithful dragon companion was watching too.

"See that, Mulan? It's Shan-Yu, leader of the Hun army! C'mon, girl, this is your chance! I can see it now: "Fa Mulan whups public enemy number one!" You gonna be famous! I'm talkin' A-list!" The dragon crowed

The girl—er—Mulan replied,

"Mushu, I'm not sure…I haven't even joined the army yet. I have to take my father's place to preserve the Fa family honor. I just hope I don't get discovered."

Mushu scoffed

"Whatever, you just scared—admit it."

"Aren't you?"

The dragon smacked his forehead

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Katy groaned to herself as she looked around; nothing but vegetation. This place was reminding her a little too much of Deep Jungle. She didn't want to revisit her memories of that place. There was waaaaaay to much falling involved. As they tried to find their way out of the thicket, they stopped short at the sight of a large shadow hovering in a clearing to their left.

"A Heartless?" Donald asked.

Sora nodded

"C'mon, let's get the jump on 'im!"

"You guys, I don't think—" Katy began to protest, but the others were already creeping towards the so-called Heartless.

Katy frowned. That heartless sure did look familiar…

Sora, Donald and Goofy charged, causing the girl in the clearing to scream and a small, red dragon to leap into her arms, the "Heartless" *cough* shadow *cough* disappearing.

"Stop, you guys! It's Mushu!" Katy called, causing them to stop in their tracks.

"That's right, I know you've heard of me." The red dragon said, from atop Mulan's shoulder. "I'm little, lethal, and legendary! Now y'all scram before I get my dragon dander up!"

"Hey, Mushu! We missed you!" Sora said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

Still not catching on, Mushu kept babbling.

"Well you better HOPE I miss YOU or else you're—"

He blinked a few times, processing

"Sora, Katy, Donald, and Goofy!" He exclaimed.

"Do you know them?" Mulan asked, confused.

"Know them? Man we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together! Yeah, you know I helped these guys out of a lot of tight spots."

Sure, if you actually _used_ the Mushu summon in the first game…which I didn't…ever…heh, heh. Anyway, back to the story.

"Yeah, something like that." Sora laughed, turning to Mulan. "And…you are?"

"I'm Mulan. Oh! No, I…I mean…I'm…" She stuttered

"Ping!" Mushu exclaimed, exasperatedly

"Mulan…Ping?" Katy asked

"Just Ping. I am Ping, son of Fa Zhou." Mulan—er—Ping replied in an exaggerated deep voice.

And apparently, Sora and the other's bought it…or they were really good actors. Katy decided to stick with the former.

"How do you know Mushu?" Sora asked

"Mushu is one of my family's guardians." Ping replied

"We didn't know we were borrowing someone as important as a family guardian." Goofy remarked.

This caused Mushu to have an epiphany

"Yeah, that's right! And that puts you four up to your eyeballs in debt to Ping here. Well, guess what, kiddies? It's payback time."

Katy gaped at him.

"Are you serious? We don't owe this chick—er—_dude _anything!"

Ping/Mulan began to protest as well, but Mushu waved it away.

"Ah, they don't mind. Ain't that right?" Mushu asked

"Hmm, sounds fair." Sora agreed.

"It does?" Katy asked.

Ignoring her comment, Mushu continued

"See, Ping here was just about to join the Imperial army. We gotta go find the other recruits over at the training camp."

"Will you join us? It'll be easier to fit in if I'm with guys, like you."

"What do you mean, "fit in"?"

"Well, um, uh, don't—don't worry about that." Mushu stuttered.

Then Goofy, of all people, enlightened them.

"You're pretendin' to be a boy, aren't you?"

"WHAT?" Donald exclaimed

"You're a…girl?"

Mulan blushed

"You didn't…notice?"

"Nuh uh."

"Not me."

"I think it's working." Mulan said to Mushu.

"I don't know—those two would fall for anything." Mushu replied

"I'm right here!" Sora protested.

"Excuse me! Can I speak!" Katy whined, interrupting the banter "If Mulan has to pretend to be a guy, how am I getting into the camp? Something tells me that they won't be to keen on letting me stay."

They all stopped walking. They hadn't thought of that.

"I'll tell them you're my sister. As long as you don't try to actually enlist in the army, I'm sure they'll let you stay." Mulan reasoned.

"Yeah…somehow I don't think they'll buy it. We don't exactly look alike."

Donald mumbled something under his breath and Katy's hair went from purple to black.

"I guess that's better. As long as they don't get a good look at my face and see that I'm not Asian." Katy muttered, trudging next to Sora.

"Relax, It'll be fine." Sora reassured her.

Katy nodded and tugged and her now black locks, wrinkling her nose in distaste, causing Sora to laugh

"Shut-up! " Katy moaned

"Why? I think you look pretty."

Katy stuck her tongue out at him but had a stupid grin on her face the rest of the trek

**KHKHKHKH**

The six of them entered the camp with little trouble. Katy was getting some strange looks, but that was the worst of it.

"Remember, girl, manly" Mushu whispered to Mulan who nodded and puffed out her chest.

Sora got on the "chow line" and got pushed roughly to the ground by a small, rather ugly looking man.

"Bout time we got some grub." The man muttered to himself.

"Hey, no cutting!" Sora protested

"Get out!" Donald agreed.

The man whipped around and punched Sora in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

Okay, let's back up a minute hear and take a second to think about all of the battle's Sora has fought. After all those Heartless and nasty Disney villains, Sora couldn't block a punch from a guy half his size? Interesting…

Anyway…

Katy clenched her fists and went to intervene, but Mulan held her back and shook her head.

"Don't draw unwanted attention." She whispered.

"Fine." Katy pouted, glaring at the ugly man, whom Donald was currently wrestling with.

So, Sora gets punched in the face and Donald wrestles with the guy. That makes perfect sense.

"Hey look, a space in line!" a taller, skinny man exclaimed

"I wonder what they're serving for lunch today." A rather…_large, _bald man asked aloud, pushing the others out of the way.

"Knuckle sandwiches." The ugly man said, shaking his fist at the other two, before lunging at them

"That's it!" Sora said, taking a swing at the man who punched him.

And so, it became an all out brawl between the four of them, the bald man just looked on serenely.

Mulan looked over at Katy, pleadingly but the younger girl shook her head.

"You told me not to draw attention to myself, remember?" She said with a smirk.

Mulan sighed and called out in her normal voice

"Please!"

"Please? The skinny man repeated

"What a girl." The ugly man muttered.

Mulan paled and cleared her throat

"Uh…knock it off!" she said, in her deep voice this time.

"Knock what off?" The ugly man asked, innocently

"You punched me!" Sora exclaimed

"Cutting in line!" Donald added

"What a shrimp!" The skinny man laughed.

"Who you callin' a shrimp, panda lips? I'm a bona fide guardian dragon! Mushu exclaimed before Mulan could stifle him.

"L-look, let's just get back in line, okay?" She pleaded

"Whose side are you on? I just got slugged!" Sora cried, gesturing wildly to the ugly man.

Mulan looked over to Katy for help and the teen sighed.

"Fine, I'll help. The things I do for strangers…" She muttered to herself as she strode over to Sora.

Gripping him by the shoulders, she smashed her lips against his, effectively cutting off all other protests. He kissed back, hands going to her waist while the men in line as well as Mulan watched them, slack- jawed.

"Soldiers! Back in line!" An authoritative voice called to them

"The Captain!" Somebody whispered as everyone scrambled to get back in line

Apparently, the two teens were too caught up in their, _ahem_, activities that they either didn't hear the order, or they chose to ignore it because the Captain came over and wrenched them apart, sending Katy a glare.

"Why is there a _girl_ in my camp?"

"Uh, she's my…sister, sir. She had no place to stay so I took her with me." Mulan explained, trying not to stutter.

The Captain fixed her with a long look before nodding.

"See to it that she stay's in line. No more funny business, you hear?" He said, giving Katy another glare

"Yes, _sir_." Katy replied, icily, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand.

The Captain left and conversation started up again, but before any introductions could be made, they were ambushed.

"What are they?" Mulan asked

"Heartless!" Sora exclaimed

Ugly, Skinny, and Baldy ran off leaving the rest of them to deal with the Heartless, what a surprise.

They took care of the enemies quickly. And after a brief yet tense conversation with the captain, agreed to test their worthiness by doing missions for the army. After much argument, it was agreed that Katy could go with them as well…not that she was looking forward to it. It was gonna be a long couple of days…

**

* * *

**

After about a day and a half of nonstop missions, the Captain finally thought they were "worthy" enough to go ahead of the rest of the troops and scout. Happy to be out of the stuffy camp, the party agreed and was currently on their way to the villiage near the mountain summit. After clearing all of the heartless, they met up with Ugly, Skinny, and Baldy (who actually turned out to be very nice people. Go figure.) A few miles more and they met up with the Captain who finally accepted Ping into the army (FINALLY!). The party made it to the village safely parted ways with the other troops to have a private conversation with Mushu.

"Okay, girl! Here's your chance!" Mushu said to Mulan in a low voice. "I just saw this real shady guy and I know it's Shan-Yu."

"Shan-Yu!" Mulan exclaimed

"That's the Hun leader!" Sora exclaimed

"T-thanks for that E-Einstein." Katy shivered. She wasn't dressed for snow.

"We should tall the Captain." Goofy suggested

"Right." Mulan agreed.

"Waaaait wait-wait-wait WAIT!" Mushu exclaimed "Everybody use their heads a sec. Now why are we here?"

"B-because you t-told us that we had d-debt to pay to Mul-s-sorry Ping." Katy got out teeth chattering.

"No! Well, yes…but no! We're here to make the Captain see Ping's talents ad bring honor to her family."

The others nodded

"So let's go find out where Shan-Yu is, by ourselves. Then if we're lucky, we can fry him up good! Though just tracking the guy down should earn us our stars…"

"B-bad idea!" Katy exclaimed, but Mulan nodded

"Okay. Let's go."

"Shan-Yu is in a cave outside the village!" Mushu revealed.

The others nodded and started for the cave, Katy "borrowing" one of the other soldier's coats before running to catch up. The last thing she needed was frostbite…

The cave wasn't really that big, so they hit a dead end in no time.

"Nobody's home." Katy remarked, looking around

"Oh ,well." Donald sighed, walking back towards the village, Goofy following.

Sora, Katy, and Mulan were just about to follow, when suddenly, the ground shook.

"What? What was that?" Mushu asked, looking around wildly.

A barrier came up between the three of them and the exit. And that's when the Heartless attacked. What did you expect?

After a fairly difficult battle, the barrier came down and Sora, Katy, and Mulan reunited with Donald and Goofy once more. Deciding to report to the Captain, even though they didn't find Shan-Yu was a good idea, they made their way back to the village, only to find it had been burned to the ground. Immediately looking for survivors, they spotted the Captain slouched against a wall a ways to their left.

"Don't overdo it, Captain." Sora warned as he struggle to get up and meet them.

"It's just a scratch." He tried to convince them before doubling over in pain.

"Captain, the enemy, where did they go?" Mulan asked

"Toward the summit." He groaned

"We'll stop them." Mulan vowed

"It kinda is our fault." Goofy muttered

"Right." Mulan agreed

"You mean MY fault." Mushu sighed

"Uh-uh." Donald protested

"Shan-Yu and the heartless did this, not us!" Sora said, firmly. "Captain, if you can track down the villagers, we can handle this."

The Captain nodded and the party set off toward the Summit.

**

* * *

**

**A/N****: Okay, I have to stop here. I still have some homework to finish up. The rest of this chapter and the next will be out tomorrow. Please Review!**


	12. Warning: Fireworks May Cause Avalanches

**Authors Note:**** Uhhhh, hey, guys! *****Dodges flying projectiles***** OKAY! Yes, I know it's been quite some time. Unfortunately, between school, and some family stuff my life has been extremley hectic lately. Although I have no intensions of ever giving up this story, school and family come first. So, I finally have a free weekend and I decided that some updates were in order. I'm gonna post a few more chapters tomorrow as well. Then next week I'm on break so I'll try and update a little if I don't get bogged down with homework. I do have the names of all of the reviewers, but the list is very…extensive, so thanks to everyone who has reviewed since the last update! I hope you decide to keep reading and reviewing. Ok, on that note, back to the Land of Dragons! I'll post a quick recap since it's been awhile. **

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy, Ryan, Cassie, and Jordan, my OCs

* * *

**Recap:**

"So let's go find out where Shan-Yu is, by ourselves.

"B-bad idea!" Katy exclaimed, but Mulan nodded

"Okay. Let's go."

"Shan-Yu is in a cave outside the village!" Mushu revealed.

"Nobody's home." Katy remarked, looking around

"Oh,well." Donald sighed, walking back towards the village,

"What was that?" Mushu asked, looking around wildly.

A barrier came up between the three of them and the exit. And that's when the Heartless attacked.

Finally, the barrier came down and Sora, Katy, and Mulan reunited with Donald and Goofy once more, they made their way back to the village, only to find it had been burned to the ground. They spotted the Captain slouched against a wall a ways to their left.

"Captain, the enemy, where did they go?" Mulan asked

"Toward the summit." He groaned

"We'll stop them." Mulan vowed

The Captain nodded and the party set off toward the Summit.

* * *

Exiting the camp, the party made their way through the ridge to the summit, knocking Rapid Thruster's out of the air as they went. They reached the summit and found Shan Yu waiting for them at the top. They were able to make out his manic grin, even from afar and watched gob-smacked as an army of Heartless appeared behind him.

"No!" Sora exclaimed

"Yeah, that's not good…" Katy mumbled, eye twitching a bit.

Shun Yu just continues to grin as he looked back at his army and yelled "Attack!"

They killed wave after wave of the yellow torpedo looking Heartless before they finally retreated. Shan Yu was NOT a happy camper. He growled at them, drawing his wicked looking knife as he advanced, the Heartless not far behind. Just as they were about to dive into battle once more, our three favorite soldiers (not really) decided to make an appearance.

"Stand back!" Ugly ordered, sending them a glare.

"Yeah, we'll handle this!" Skinny added as he and Baldy began to set up their secret weapon.

"You're gonna kill them with…fireworks?" Katy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's the plan." Skinny replied.

"Why didn't I think of that?" She mumbled to herself.

Just as they were about to light the fuse, Mul—sorry, _Ping_ knocked Ugly out of the way. Stuttering out an apology the ran a few feet forward and aimed the firework at the very top of the mountain.

"Flint, I need some flint." She muttered to herself, eyes landing on Mushu.

Before he could protest the grabbed him and used his fire-breath to light the fuse, accidentally launching him with the firework.

"You're going the wrong way!" Ugly protested.

"Dude, quiet! Just watch!" Katy said pointing to the spot where the bomb hit and successfully caused an avalanche.

"Yes!" Ping exclaimed.

"Don't celebrate yet, dude." Katy said warily, pointing to a figure in the distance.

"Captain?" Sora asked.

"No, the Queen of England. Of COURSE it's the captain!" Katy exclaimed.

Ping looked from the avalanche, to the captain, back to the avalanche, back to the captain before finally springing up and running towards him to inform him of his impending doom.

"Look out!"

Then the mountain _exploded_.

The snow was everywhere and was acting like a river rapid ride in an amusement park, carrying them down the summit like a current. Katy managed to grab onto Sora and spotted Donald and Goofy a ways away. She looked frantically around for Mulan who she saw running in the opposite direction with the captain. Resigning herself to the fact that they would have to ride the avalanche out, Katy tightened her grip on Sora's hood and waited.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the start of the avalanche, Ping and the captain were catching their breath.

"Thanks Ping." The Captain said between breaths.

"It was nothing." Mulan replied

"I should have never doubted you. From now on, you have my trust."

Before Ping could reply, Mushu emerged from a pile of snow.

"First she uses me as a lighter, then she turns me into a cannonball. The head ancestor's gonna hear about this. You know, that's it! I give up! I can't take this no more. C'mon, Mulan. Let's quit this charade and go home, girl.

"Mushu!" Mulan hissed, but it was too late. The Captain already heard.

"Mulan? A woman? It can't be!"

Well _that_ period of trust was short lived.

Before Mulan could explain, Sora and the others called out to them, running back up the summit.

"Hey, guys. You're okay!" Goofy exclaimed.

"You all knew, didn't you?" The Captain asked. "You knew Ping was really a woman in disguise.

"Uhhhh." They all stuttered, lost for words

"You all lied to me!"

Yeah, that's what I said when my parent's told me that Santa didn't exist.

"The punishment for high treason and dishonoring the army…is death."

Uhh, I didn't sentence my parents to death. Don't worry.

"Get out of my sight now. You're all dismissed."

"But Capta—OW!" Sora exclaimed as Katy stomped on his foot rather hard.

"Do you _want_ him to kill us?" She hissed and Sora shook his head quickly.

The Captain approached the rest of the army (Ugly, Skinny, and Baldy. Go Figure)

"The Emperor is waiting to hear of Shan Yu's defeat. Move out."

"So you're just gonna leave us here to FREEZE?" Katy yelled after the Captains retreating form. "Real nice guy, he is. Repaid his debt my ass. Does he think we won't die out here?"

"Mulan, I blew it." Mushu groaned, feeling sorry for himself.

Yeah, he should keep his big mouth SHUT in the future.

Mulan took off her heavy amour and took her hair out of its high bun.

"Thank you, everyone. I'm sorry I got you in trouble."

"It's no big deal." Sora said, nonchalantly "So Ping…I mean Mulan, what're you gonna do now?"

"Go back home." She sighed

"You _know_ your daddy's gonna be steamed as a chicken dumpling." Mushu quipped

"Don't worry. We're all in this together. We'll take out share of the blame." Katy said, managing a small smile despite at being pissed that they'd been left to die.

"Thanks. You're all wonderful friends." Mulan replied with a smile of her own.

They started down the mountain trail, back towards the camp when they hear an enraged yell from the summit below them. They all rushed towards the edge in time to see Shan Yu emerge from the snow with his Heartless army and continue in the opposite direction.

"How is he still alive?" Katy exclaimed, smacking her forehead.

"He's heading for the Imperial City!" Mulan gasped "We've got to warn Shang!"

"Whose Shang?" Katy asked

"The Captain." Mulan replied, blushing.

Katy smirked, but didn't say anything more on the matter as the changed course for the Imperial City. They reached the Checkpoint and headed east, defeating the occasional heartless on the way until they finally caught up with the army a little ways into the city.

"Shang! Mulan yelled, skidding to a stop in front of the Captain. "Shan Yu is alive! He's headed this way!"

"And why should I believe you this time?" Shang demanded.

"She's telling you the truth!" Sora protested.

"Wak!" Donald exclaimed, pointing to a very familiar hawk as it flew over them.

Shang followed the hawk with his eyes, gasping as it landed on the Hun leader's shoulder.

"Guard the Palace! Do not let the enemy get anywhere near the Emperor!" Shang called to the army, who rushed to follow orders except for a handful of soldiers behind him.

"That was an order!" He said, gasping as his men turned into heartless.

"Captain! We'll secure the courtyard. You go save the Emperor!" Sora instructed, drawing the Keyblade.

"That's an order!" Donald added.

They cleared the courtyard quickly and ran towards the Palace.

"Sora, you are taking this army thing waaaaaay to seriously. We're not actually part of it, remember?" Katy asked bemusedly.

"What do you mean?" He asked

"Secure the courtyard? That's an order? Really?" Katy teased

"Whatever, I got caught up in the moment." He replied with an eye roll

"Or something." Katy laughed, jogging ahead before he could poke her in the ribs.

They reached the entrance to the palace to find Shan Yu holding his knife to the Emperor's throat. Before they could do anything, Shang jumped down from nowhere, punching the Hun leader in the stomach and leading the Emperor to safety inside the Palace.

Apparently, he expected them to kill Shan Yu for him after he left them to freeze to death. What a guy.

The five of them drew their weapons and stood between Shan Yu and the Palace door.

"This ends now." Mulan said, stony faced.

"Right now." Sora added

"Really? 'Cause I was kinda hoping I could go get a smoothie first." Katy put in sarcastically, ignoring Sora's exasperated glare.

Shan Yu laughed (not at Katy's joke, just in general) and began to glow an eerie purple color (Which I'm not sure is nautral…) before lunging at them, weapon drawn.

During the battle, Sora focused his attention on Shan Yu, while Katy and the others took out the never-ending waves of Heartless. They rounded up all of the nearby fireworks and used Katy's fire spell to light them and blow up whatever was stupid enough to get in their way at the time. Katy also couldn't help but take a few swipes at that annoying hawk…for some reason it got a kick out of attacking her hair, which Donald had changed back to its normal shade. Finally, Shan Yu fell (literally) leaving them victorious.

After the army realized they'd killed the Hun leader, Shang and the Emperor emerged from the Palace.

"I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan." The Emperor began, stepping towards them. "You stole your fathers amour, ran away from home, Impersonated an Imperial soldier. You deceived your commanding officer, shamed the entire Chinese army, and dishonored your family name."

Sora crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"We get the picture." He mumbled, eliciting a snicker from his girlfriend.

"You are a young woman, and in the end…you have saved us all." The Emperor finished with a smile and a bow as the crowd below them began to cheer.

The Emperor nodded to Shang who picked up Shan Yu's knife and presented it to Mulan.

"Take this, so the world will know what it is you have done for China."

Mulan nodded and smiled at him.

"And Mulan…thank you." Shang said sincerely.

"Is that all you have to say? Captain Li, if you wish to capture the heart of Fa Mulan China's bravest woman, then I think you need to be a bit more eloquent than that!" The Emperor chuckled.

Shang stuttered uncomfortably and everyone laughed.

"Can I get an autograph?" Sora joked, resting a hand on Mulan's shoulder.

"Thanks for everything, Sora." Mulan said sincerely.

"Don't mention it. Sora loves this kind of hero stuff." Katy replied wryly.

In the midst of all this, Shan Yu's sword began to glow and float above the ground, causing Mulan to gasp.

"Don't worry, perfectly normal." Katy reassured her

"What does it mean?" Mulan asked

"Mean's we're being summoned…again…as usual." Katy sighed

"Yeah, looks like it's time to go." Sora agreed, grabbing Katy's hand

"We look forward to your return." Shang said

"Us too. You guys play nice!" Sora replied with a grin, leaving a stuttering pair behind.

* * *

As they reached the Gummi ship, Sora suddenly pushed Katy against the side.

"Can I help you?" She asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Sora's answer was to lean in and kiss her soundly on the mouth for several minutes.

"Um, not that I'm complaining, but what…"

"I wanted to do that since before."

"You mean when I kept you from getting mauled by a guy half your size?"

Sora scowled at her and she laughed, tugging him onto the ship.

"C'mon, lover boy. We've got more worlds to save."

* * *

**A/N:**** Okay, so I will post one or two more chapters tomorrow. Please review!**


	13. Beauties, Beasts, and Ballrooms

**Authors Note****: Look! Another update! I know, you're all fainting with surprise! Thanks so, so much to kingdomdisney and DeadlyPapegoja for their reviews. It means a lot that their still reading. Okay! So, I'm not sure whether Beast's Castle is gonna be one or two parts. I try to keep most chapters around 2500-3000 words so it all depends. Either way, the entirety of the world will be up today, maybe the next one too if I have time. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just my OCs Katy, Ryan, Cassie, and Jordan.

* * *

The party proceeded through the Stardust Sweep, blowing up the zillions of Heartless ships that swarmed through Gummi Space and finally arrived at a rather creepy looking castle.

"Hey, what is this place?" Sora asked his companions.

"If we knew, don't we think we would tell you?" Katy quipped, looking around the dark interior a little nervously.

"It's sorta gloomy, dontcha think." Goofy said aloud, also looking a bit wary

"I wonder who lives here."

As though answering his question, a roar sounded through the castle, shaking the walls and floors.

Whoa, flashback.

"Does anybody else recognize that?" Goofy asked, excitedly.

"That's the beast!" Sora exclaimed

"Maybe we should check up on him." Goofy suggested

"Umm, I think we're gonna have to hold off on that. Look, bunny at 3:00." Katy sighed; pointing as a shadow Heartless skulked into a room to their left.

"C'mon!" Donald yelled.

"And we've only been here abut 45 seconds. It's a new record." Katy mumbled, chasing after him.

They entered the room and were attacked by a swarm of Shadows. They disposed of them quickly, but it was one of those situations where they just seemed to keep coming.

"Aw, C'mon! Enough already!" Sora groaned as yet another wave of Heartless appeared.

"Somebody help us!" Donald yelled enraged.

Apparently this castle had ears, because once again, Donald's plea was answered when the doors slammed open, revealing the Beast.

He stomped into the room with a roar, successfully eliminating the remaining Heartless.

"Just in time!" Sora said with a grin.

The Beast stared at him blankly, before pushing him roughly to the side. He did the same to Donald, Goofy, and Katy before picking up a glass encased rose and swiftly leaving the room.

"Gee, do you think he forgot who we are?" Goofy asked, puzzled.

"I dunno, but with this many Heartless around, something must be up." Sora remarked, helping Katy off the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Just a few bruises. I'll live." She answered, distracted by Goofy's previous statement.

She knew that is _was_ possible that Beast had forgotten them. If the Organization had decided not to destroy Naminé, it was a strong possibility.

They exited the room, Donald noticing a feminine shadow at the top of the stairs.

"What's up?" Sora asked the flustered ducking

"I'm sure I saw a lady at the top of those stairs."

"Well, if this is Beast's Castle, wouldn't Belle live here, too?" Katy reasoned.

"Yeah, maybe. She might know what happened to the Beast, too."

"Well, let's go find her!" Goofy said, running towards the stairs.

They went up the staircase that Donald thought he'd seen Belle on and approached the door at the end of the hall. Faintly, they could make out a woman's voice from behind it.

"Okay." Donald muttered to himself, backing up a few feet.

Realizing what he was going to do, Sora tried to protest

"Donald!"

But it was too late, the talking animal was already running at the door at full speed…when it opened.

"Not cool duckling. You don't just barge in to a girl's room without knocking." Katy said, shaking her head at him.

Donald glared at her and mumbled something about someone opening the door.

The four of them looked up to see a young woman in a blue dress looking at them with relief.

"Oh, I'm so happy you're here!" Belle exclaimed, picking up Donald and giving him a hug.

"Hiya!" Sora said with a wave ad Belle put Donald down to give Katy a hug."

After their hellos, they cut right to the chase.

"Where's the Beast?" Donald asked

"Oh, he must be in the west wing." Belle answered, looking at her feel. "We don't talk like we used to."

"Did something happen?" Sora asked, concerned.

"Yes. Isn't that why you're here?"

"Well, we actually didn't know that you guys lived here…but we can still help out." Katy answered truthfully.

"Since we're here and all." Sora added, "So, the Beast won't talk to you?"

"He's been acting strange lately." Belle confessed. "The only ones who might know why are locked in the dungeon. I want to help them, but…"

"Wait a second. Who locked who up?" Sora asked, confused

"The Beast locked up his servants." Belle clarified.

"Why?"

"That's what I don't know."

"Okay, Princess. Where is this dungeon?" Katy asked, impatient to find out what was going on.

If it _was_ the Organization…well, nothing good would come of it.

"You can get to the undercroft from the west hall. The dungeon is down there." Belle replied

"West Hall. Got it." Sora said, grabbing Katy's hand and tugging her out of the room.

"Are you okay?" He asked her once they were outside.

"Yeah, I already said before. A couple of bruises aren't gonna kill me, Sora"

"No, not that. You just look…nervous."

Katy looked down to hide the panicked look on her face. She was being too obvious. She had to calm down.

"It's nothing. I just…with the Beast not being himself, and what happened earlier, I'm just a little on edge." She lied.

Sora studied her face for a few seconds before nodding and grabbing her hand once more.

Katy sighed inwardly. This withholding information this was gonna be harder than she thought…

* * *

After reaching the west hall, moving the talking wardrobe out of the way of the door, and learning that a spell had been cast on the castle that transformed the Beast into the Beast, the party finally reached the dungeon.

"This must be it." Sora said

"Yep. Definitely creepy enough." Katy agreed

Donald walked up to the large door on the other side of the room and pushed it, causing a chain reaction that ended with the door turning into a Heartless. What, did you think saving the servants would be _easy?_

The Thresholder wasn't really that tough. First it sent out its minions; two possessed statues and a couple of waves of hook bats. Then Sora used the Keyblade to release the Heartless that was possessing the door, the Possessor (Go Figure). After a couple of repeats, the door turned back into a door and the possessor disappeared.

"Gee, first doors with talking doorknobs, then doors that attack us, I'm scared to find out what's next." Katy mumbled to herself as they continued deeper into the dungeon.

They reached a dead end and there were still no sign of the servants—just a teapot and cup, a clock, and a candlestick.

"There's no one here!" Sora exclaimed looking around."

"No shit, Sherlock." Katy bit back, annoyed. "That chick sends us all the way down here, and there's no one to rescue."

The a disembodied voice asked,

"Did somebody say "rescue"?"

"Shh! Be Quiet! It might be THEM!" Another voice hissed

"Oh, they look like nice children to me." Yet another voice reasoned

"We are nice! We're your friends!" Goofy explained

"Yeah! Belle sent us to find you."

Then to their shock, the items mentioned before jumped of their various—er _chairs_ and approached them.

Katy smacked her forehead.

"Great! First talking animals, then talking doorknobs, now talking inanimate objects. What next!"

"Excuse me, miss! Who are you calling inanimate!" The clock exclaimed, haughtily.

"I'm Sora. This is Donald, Goofy, and Katy." Sora introduced before things could get ugly.

Donald picked up the clock in fascination and, to Katy's delight, began to shake it.

"No, no! Put me down, I am self-winding, sir!" It protested, squirming in the duck's grasp.

"We're glad you're okay" Sora said t the candlestick.

"It is we who are overjoyed to see you!" It replied, hopping back on the chair.

"Did somebody put a spell on you, too?" Goofy asked.

"Yes, that's right." The clock answered

The inanimate objects, (Whose names they found out were Cogsworth, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, and Chip,) then proceeded to tell them the story of how they became inanimate. An enchantress came to the castle disguised as a beggar and asked for shelter. When the Beast, then the Prince, turned her away, she turned him and all of the castle's inhabitants into their current forms."

"We know what needs to be done to break the spell, but the Master is not himself lately." Lumiere trailed off

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Sora asked

"It's as though he's forgotten how to trust people." Mrs. Potts sighed.

"Do you think he's been turned into a Heartless?" Cogsworth asked aloud.

"What?" Katy exclaimed

"Well, if that's the case. It's a good thing we're here." Sora said with a grin.

"Conceited much? Whatever, can we just get out of here? I'm freezing." Katy rambled, trying to hide her nervousness.

"Yes! Come. My friends. I know a shortcut." Lumiere said, hopping off the chair once more and leading them out of the dungeon.

* * *

They opened the secret passage to the west wing by lighting all of the enchanted lanterns and pushing the secret brick. They arrived at the west wing and entered the Beast's room.

**Five Minutes Earlier**

"It's time you dealt with Belle." A man in a black Organization XIII cloak told the Beast. "She's scheming to take everything you have. This castle, your precious rose. And then—your life. Trust no one. Feed your anger! Only anger will keep you strong."

"I've had enough of strength. There's only one thing I want—" The Beast replied

"What? To love and be loved in return? Who could ever love a beast?" The man replied, cruelly.

The Beast roared, and that's around the time when our favorite heroes walked in.

"See? She has accomplices." The man said, regarding them from behind his hood.

Katy paled. Her fears had been confirmed. The Organization was behind this.

But, before she could act, the man had cast barriers around the room and vanished through a dark corridor. Sora thought that meant it was a good idea to approach the Beast.

"Hey, Prince!"

And call him Prince…not good.

Sure enough, the Beast roared again and lunged at them, leaving them with no choice but to fight him.

Between their well aimed blows and Cogsworth's pleas for Beast to compose himself he finally snapped out of it.

"Cogsworth. What happened." The Beast asked, voice rough

"Well, Master…ah, you see…that is…How shall I say…ah, actually…mmm…" Cogsworth stuttered

"Well, you put everybody down there in that dungeon! Donald explained.

"I did what?" Beast exclaimed

"Well, yes…you did." Cogsworth clarified.

"Who was that guy you were talking to? The one in black?" Sora asked, trying to help jog his memory.

The Beast gasped

"Xaldin!...That's his name. He came from the darkness…He…used my anger to control me. He took all my sorrow, my sadness, my pain—and turned it all into rage. There was nothing I could do…I could no longer see the truth."

"Well, I'll be! That must be why you threw all of your friends down there into the dungeon." Goofy reasoned. "You wanted to make sure that you didn't hurt 'em, right?"

"Was that it? Was it to protect them?" The Beast asked himself.

In other words, yeah, sure, let's go with that.

"He's right, Master. We've all seen how kind you can be." Cogsworth agreed quickly. "After all, Belle can see the goodness in your heart, but I'm afraid you've yet to—"

"Belle!" The Beast exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about her." Katy mumbled

"I've mistreated her. I've mistreated her and been so selfish."

"She didn't say anything about that." Sora frowned

"She'd never tell anyone of my cruelty. She's too good."

"Why don't you just go talk to her?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, lover boy. We'll even go with you." Katy agreed, dismissing her blades and resting her hands on her hips.

With a bit more convincing, the party, plus Beast made their way back to Belle's room.

* * *

They got to Belle's room, only to find that she wasn't there. The wardrobe told them that she'd gone after the man in black.

"WHAT?" The Beast roared "Why doesn't she do as she's told?"

"Temper, temper!" The wardrobe scolded "Her spirit is what makes Belle so special."

"Yeah, and who died and made you in charge of her." Katy asked, a bit miffed.

"We'd better go find her." Sora said.

The party left Belle's room and headed to the Entrance Hall. Before anyone could suggest where they should start looking, they heard Belle's muffled voice

"I'm warning you! You'll be sorry!"

"Belle! Where are you?" The Beast called out.

"Beast? Help! I'm in the ballroom!"

They ran back up the stairs and into the ballroom to find Belle being chased by a ball-and-chain looking Heartless.

"Belle!" The Beast cried

"I'm all right!" She replied, running outside onto the balcony.

The Shadow Stalker growled at them and attached itself to the large chandelier.

That's when the battle began. And things started to get…interesting.

It turned the ballroom into a warped arena-version of itself, possessing different parts of it much like the Thresholder door. They took care of it quickly, but that wasn't the worst of it.

The Shadow Stalker curled into itself and transformed into a rather ugly looking Heartless.

The Dark Thorn immediately turned invisible, making killing it that much more difficult, but by using a bunch of fancy combos, (I don't even remember LEARNING this!) they were able to take it down as well.

"We did it" Donald cheered.

"So you think." Said a familiar voice.

They all whipped around to see the man in black.

"Xaldin!" The beast growled, running towards him

"Farewell." The Organization member said, vanishing through a dark corridor.

"He must be part of Organization XIII" Sora reasoned. "ever heard of the Nobodies? When a strong-hearted person turns into a Heartless, a Nobody is created, too." Sora explained.

Beast still looked confused

"The Organization has control of all the Nobodies. They probably wanted to make you into a Heartless so they could have control of your Nobody." Katy finished.

"You're all right!" Belle exclaimed, coming in from the balcony.

"Belle!" The Beast exclaimed, running towards her and stuttering out an apology.

"Belle! I-I'm sorry…I wasn't myself…I hope I haven't done anything to hurt you."

"I know you weren't yourself. You don't have to apologize. But I had hoped that you had changed a little bit. I wish you would start trusting me."

Meanwhile, The servants were explaining how the spell could be lifted.

"You think he's gonna make it?" Sora asked

"We think so." Mrs. Potts said.

"Yeah, I think your right." Katy said with a smile.

"I HOPE your right." Sora added, earning himself a slap in the head.

Then the Keyblade started to glow. We all know what that means.

"Do you have to go?" Belle asked, sadly

"Yeah." Sora replied.

"Now no more arguin', okay?" Goofy added

"We'll see to it." Lumiere promised "You're welcome here anytime."

"If you here anything about Riku, or the King, the Heartless, the Organization—anything at all—let us know!" Sora instructed.

The pair nodded and our heroes left for the Gummi Ship.

* * *

As they set course for the next world, Katy moved to sit beside Sora.

"Now it's my turn to ask you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah…just. I thought we would have heard something about Riku by now."

Although she didn't like him very much, Riku was one of Sora's best friends. Sighing she kissed his cheek.

"I'm sure we'll hear something soon…don't worry. He's probably with the King somewhere…"

Sora nodded and got up to man the ship's controls (oh, dear lord.)

Katy sighed. She really wished she could just tell him everything. But she was afraid that if she did the universe would explode…and that he'd be so mad that he'd never talk to her again. Pushing these thoughts back Katy shut her eyes, deciding to get some sleep before it was back to reality.

* * *

**A/N****: Okay, so I'm not including the trip back to Hollow Bastion because all it did was introduce the Hundred Acre Wood, and I don't include it in my stories. So I'm probably not going to be able to update this week so you can expect them again next week. Read and Review!**


	14. Percy Jackson and The Return of Hades

**Authors Note****: Greetings my wonderful readers! I know that after such a long break you were doubtful about me actually updating this week. So this is me proving you wrong! Anyways, thanks so much to: kingdomdisney, Xxnikkigirl123xX, and Wormo the Green Lantern for their thoughtful reviews. Thanks also to Fionn Rose for adding the Key's Keeper and The Beat of My Heart to their favorite stories list and me to their favorite authors list. So, without further adieu, off to the Olympus Coliseum!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Only my OCs Katy, Ryan, Cassie and Jordan

* * *

After another long ride on the Gummi ship, our heroes finally reached their destination.

"The Olympus Coliseum! Home of my favorite Satyr! " Katy cheered

"I though he was a centaur. Like in Harry Potter." Sora teased, Katy having told him about her favorite book series on their previous journey.

"Yes, but that's before I read Percy Jackson." Katy answered.

"Whose Percy Jackson?"

"Ugh. Seriously, Sora, I haven't forgotten about the whole holding you captive in my basement to learn pop culture thing. You need a crash course ASAP."

Sora shrugged and followed her off the ship.

They were met with a dark landscape surrounded by a purplish-black sea of…something.

"Um, why do I get the feeling that we never _reached_ Kansas to not be there anymore?" Katy asked, looking around nervously.

"Are you _sure_ this is the Coliseum?" Goofy asked.

"It's that way!" Donald exclaimed pointing to a bright archway that led upwards.

"Oh…Guess we were a little off." Sora said sheepishly.

"What do you mean _we_?_ You_ were the one driving the ship!" Katy said incredulously

Donald and Goofy roller their eyes as the two teens bickered with each other, only stopping when they heard a scream.

The four whipped around to see a brunette woman in a pink dress running from Heartless that were probably supposed to be hellhounds.

Their creator had obviously never seen a hellhound in his life.

The drew their weapons, but apparently there was no need as the Heartless left the woman alone after she was sent sprawling to the floor. Nonetheless, they ran over, Sora holding out a hand to help her up.

"Thanks, but…I-I'm fine." She slurred, holding her head as she staggered to her feet, giving the party a glare, which Katy returned

"I'm Sora. This is Katy, Donald, and Goofy. We came to see how Hercules is doing."

The woman looked them over with distaste, crossing her arms over her chest.

"_You_ know Wonderboy?"

"Yeah, 'cause we're heroes too!" Donald said, proudly

"Ya mean junior heroes, Donald." Goofy reminded him, causing the duck to pout.

The woman's frosty demeanor softened and she gave them a small half-smile.

"Looks like we have a friend in common. Name's Megara. My friend's call me Meg."

"So how's Herc?" Sora asked now that introductions were out of the way.

"Wonderboy? Well, he's ducking it out at the Coliseum every day. You know, "a hero's work is never done" and all that. He's ready to drop, but he keeps on fighting. Even Wonderboy has his limits, though. These opponents are bad news—special deliveries from Hades himself…" Meg trailed off.

"Hades?" Donald exclaimed

Katy clenched her hands at her sides at the thought of the blue, flame-headed God from hell…literally. The last time they'd been to the Coliseum, he'd tried to kill all of them with Cerberus, his three headed dog…the dog that had taken a nice size _chunk_ out of her arm.

Oblivious to Katy's flashback, Meg continued

"Right. Lord of the Underworld. I was on my way to see him. Maybe I can get Hades to give Wonderboy a breather. If anything happened to that kid…" Meg trailed off again, shaking her head as though it would clear away the images running through it.

Katy sympathized with the young woman. If Sora had been in the same predicament, she would have braved anything to try to get him a break.

"C'mon, guys. Let's go pay our friend Hades a visit." Katy said, teeth clenching on the word "Hades".

"Yeah, we wouldn't want anything to happen to you on your way to see him." Sora added.

Meg agreed, on the condition that they would keep their "chat with Hades" a secret. The party promised to keep their mouths shut and continued through the giant door to the Underworld.

* * *

Not even two rooms later they were startled by a cloaked figure running past them.

"The Organization!" Donald exclaimed

"Don't they ever take a coffee break?" Katy mumbled as they continued in the general direction the figure disappeared in.

Just as they stepped through the door to the Inner Chamber, the Organization member they saw a few minutes earlier charged at them, only to yell "run, run away!' and disappear into a dark corridor.

Katy paled. She knew that voice. The same infuriating voice that insisted on calling her "babe" every time she met it. Deep down though, she was glad that he was okay. She was sure that Axel would have figured out that she lied to him about Demyx not helping her out of The Nothing and disposed of him by now.

"Okay…" Sora said, a little amused as he stared at the spot where the dark corridor had been.

"That's a nice change." Katy said, cheerfully as she tugged Sora in the direction of the next area "C'mon! let's go before he comes back!" _And lets it slip that he knows me and ruins everything." _She added mentally as Sora agreed and they continued towards Hades.

* * *

**(A/N: If you have not played Final Fantasy X and are planning to play, or if you are in the middle of playing it, there's kind of a MAJOR spoiler here. If you don't want to ruin the game for yourself skip to the end of the line break!)**

Meanwhile…

"Where do they dig these freaks up? Geez, Louise." Hades ranted

"Oh, they're nothing but trouble. The whole lot of them." Said another familiar voice, Pete. "So, what are you gonna do about Hercules?" Maleficent's slave-dog asked the Lord of the Underworld. "He's made mince-meat out of every fighter you sent at him! Pretty soon the Underworld's gonna be standing room only. Say, why don't you send him somebody already dead and save him the trouble." Pete laughed, thinking he was quite hysterical.

Hades, (although he'd been tuning out most of what Pete was saying) jumped out of his seat at Pete's last statement.

"Dead…dead is good! And I know just the warrior.

* * *

"Hades, come out!" Sora yelled as they entered they Cave of the Dead.

"Dude, I really don't think he can hear you." Katy said, wincing at her boyfriend's decibel level.

The party made their way to the top of the cave, fighting their way through the Underworld's nasty Heatless brigade, making their way to Hades's chamber, missing the following conversation. (Shame on them.)

"By the by, uh…What's down there?" Pete asked Hades, nervously

"Just the Underworld's deepest dungeon. This time I'm bringing out the mother of all bad guys." Hades cackled

"You don't say." Pete gulped, backing away slowly. "Well, maybe I should go."

Hades sent two balls of fire down into the pit-dungeon and brought forth a man in a red cloak.

"Let's cut to the chase." The Lord of the Underworld quipped. "Here's the deal I'm gonna offer you. I let you out of the slammer—no strings—you'll be free as a bird. And all for one little job. Fight Hercules in the Coliseum…to the death."

Gee, you think Hades would have learned after what happened with Cloud…

The man sneered

"This is my story. And you're not part of it." He said in a deadly calm voice, drawing his weapon.

"Do you know who you're talking to? I am the Lord of the Dead!" Hades exclaimed

"Hmm. No wonder no one wants to die." The man replied snidely.

"You are FIRED!" Hades shouted, his entire body going from blue to red.

And that's when Sora and the others decide to make an appearance!

"Hades!" Donald exclaimed.

"You, again?" Hades groaned, his anger fading, giving the mystery man an opening.

Unfortunately, Hades was able to block the attack and throw him aside. Summoning some more fireballs, he got ready to attack.

"Oh, lord. This is _not_ going to be fun." Katy groaned, drawing her Keyblades.

They quickly realized that something was wrong.

"I feel kinda funny." Sora said, swaying a little.

"Ditto." Katy replied, blinking to clear her blurred vision.

"That's right! See, that's the thing. In the underworld, heroes are zeroes—comes with the territory." Hades said with a grin, getting ready to attack.

He was deterred by the mystery man, who told them to run.

"But, I've gotta talk to Hades!" Sora protested.

"What was that?" Hades feigned deafness, putting his fingers in his ears.

"Jeez, worse than a five year old having a temper tantrum." Katy muttered to herself, heeding the man's advice and dragging Sora out of the chamber, the man following.

They got back to the Cave of the Dead, Sora and Goofy shutting the doors behind them.

"Is he gone?" Donald asked

"Don't count on it." The man, who's name they discovered to be Auron, replied

Sora gasped as Hades materialized next to him.

"Leaving so soon?" He asked, tauntingly

Katy grabbed Sora's wrist and yanked him away from the door.

"C'mon! Head for the exit!"

Despite doing everything in his power to prevent their escape, Hades was disappointed as the heroes made it out nearly unscathed.

Upon reaching the inner chamber, They all, save Auron, collapsed to the ground.

"You're really good." Sora told him "Are you some kind of hero?"

Auron shook his head.

"No, I'm no hero…I'm just an…" He trailed off, leaving the others confused. He continued; "It seems we we're fated to meet. Maybe you need a guardian."

"Thanks, dude, but that's _my_ job." Katy replied, grabbing hold of Sora's arm and healing a nasty gash in it. "Thank god for cure magic." She mumbled, helping him to his feet and heading to the next room.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Hades's chambers, the Lord of the Dead was pacing and Pete was trying to convince him not to worry.

"I've got Heartless all over the Underworld now, so leave those pipsqueaks to me. Look, pal, you just keep working on turning Hercules into a Heartless then he'll be all mine." Pete rambled, unaware of how angry he was making his companion.

"This is my underworld, you idiot!" Hades roared. "I'll handle this myself!"

Pete ran off and, with a snap of his fingers, Hades summoned his secret weapon

"Cerberus, go!"

The dog growled and complied.

* * *

The party reached the Underworld's exit only to find that the door was closed and locked. Sora drew the Keyblade.

"Will that open it?" Auron asked

"I think so." Sora replied."

Just he tried to do so, they heard a low growl.

"Oh god, please no." Katy groaned, praying to every possible God she could think of that is wasn't what she thought it was.

It was.

Cerberus dropped from the ceiling and Sora rushed to unlock the door.

As Donald and Goofy struggled to open it, Auron held the beast off.

"Sora, wait!" Katy shrieked as he doubled back at the last second to help him.

She tried to follow, but purple flames sprung up in front of her.

"No, no, no!" She screamed as the familiar helpless feeling came over her.

The same thing happened when Sora had to fight possessed-Riku alone in Hollow Bastion. Apparently, when Protectors fail to do their jobs, they get withdrawal-like symptoms. Her limbs were on fire, her body was overrun with adrenaline, and she was having trouble breathing as she frantically looked for a way passed the flames. Finding none, she paced back and forth hoping that he wouldn't end up with a chunk of flesh missing like she had when it was over.

Sora and Auron managed to stagger Cerberus enough to make the barriers disappear. They ran for the exit, Donald and Goofy closing the door behind them.

Exhausted from her meltdown, Katy slumped to the ground, alternating between coughing and breathing as she pulled her inhaler out of her bag with shaking hands.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked her looking worried and guilty.

"You need to get over your hero complex, dude. It's literally going to be the death of me." Katy replied once she could breathe normally.

Sora sat down next to her stuttering out an apology, which she waved aside.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. Just _never_ do that again, okay."

Sora nodded and they decided to rest for awhile before deciding what to do next.

* * *

"C'mon, Wonderboy. Play hooky for a day. For old times sake." Meg pleaded with Hercules

"They came to see me. They came to see a hero. I can't let them down."

Meg sighed dejectedly

"Don't worry, Meg. I'll be fine. What does a hero need rest for, huh?" Hercules reassured her, going back into the coliseum to fight his next opponent.

"Sora, don't let me down." Meg said to herself as she watched him go.

* * *

**A/N****: Okay, so I'm gonna wrap it up here, since I don't like my chapters getting too long. I'll continue writing part two of the coliseum so it should be up sometime tonight or tomorrow afternoon the latest. Thanks for reading! Please REVIEW!**


	15. Demyx Shakes Things Up

**Authors Note: Hello again, my wonderful readers! Thanks to Alexa-Voultiri, kingdomdisney, and Makii for their reviews! I'll skip my usul rambling and let you get on with the story! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Only my OCs Katy, Ryan, Cassie, and Jordan!

* * *

Back in the Underworld…

"Let me see if I got this right." Hades said to Pete. "That brat's Keyblade works on any lock?"

"That's right!" Pete replied

Hades laughed

"Have I ever told you about the killer coliseum we have right here in the underworld? It makes the one upstairs look like an Olympic kiddie pool.

"Then that's where we're gonna put an end t Herc the Jerk's winning streak!" Pete crowed.

"Problem. Zeus locked it up tight."

Pete scowled until realization dawned on him.

"Bingo…all we gotta do is swipe that key and unlock the Underdome!"

Pete shook his head

"Hate to tell ya, but that key is kinda particular. It won't work for just anybody. And that kid ain't no pushover."

Hades thought for a moment before grinning evilly.

"I think this calls for a woman's touch." He said, conjuring up an image of Meg.

Beck in the Coliseum lobby, Meg shivered. It felt as though someone had just walked over her grave.

**

* * *

**

Meanwhile, our heroes made it out of the underworld and were now staring at the sparking sparkleyness that was the Olympus Coliseum.

"Gawrsh, this sure does bring back memories!" Goofy remarked as they started towards the lobby.

The doors opened before they reached them and out stepped Hercules looking a little worse for wear. Upon noticing them, he brightened.

"Guys! When did you get here?"

After a round of hellos, Hercules asked them what they were doing back.

"You know, trackin' down some friends. Wipin' out some Heartless." Sora replied as they followed him inside

"So did you find those friends of yours?" Herc asked.

"Still working on it. When we got here, we ran into Meg—Meg-mega-trouble, I mean! So we had to help somebody out." Sora stumbled through the sentence.. "We tried to teach Hades a thing or two…but the Underworld drains away all our strength. Don't suppose you have any ideas?"

"Well, there's a stone that guards against the Underworld's curse. The Gods on Mount Olympus use it whenever they have to go down there." Hercules replied

"Think we could use it?"

"Sure, why not! I'll go get it for you."

"Thanks!" Donald said

"But Hades is no pushover, even if you've got the Olympus Stone." Hercules warned. "And I have a match today, so I can't go with you…Know what you need? Training!"

"Oh, no." Katy groaned, remembering the last time they had undergone "training"

Sure enough, Herc told them to go talk to Phil. Spectacular.

**

* * *

**

The training was more or less the same as the last time…instead this time they were destroying jars instead of barrels. They completed the training right around the time that Hercules came back with the news that the Olympus stone had been stolen by "a guy in a black coat and creatures in white." Katy gritted her teeth at the news. When they ran into Demyx, he was so dead.

"Hey if we find the Olympus stone, can we borrow it for awhile?" Sora asked

"Sure, I don't see why not…by the way, have you seen Meg around?"

"Nope, why?"

"No reason." Herc answered, hanging his head a bit.

"What's wrong your hero-ness? Feeling…under the weather?" A familiar voice asked, placing it's bony blue fingers on Herc's shoulder, causing him to jerk away. "You know I thought staying in perfect shape was part of the hero job description…just saying." Hades continued.

"Oh, right…Hades, we gotta talk!" Sora said, glaring at the Lord of the Dead.

Hades rolled his eyes, flicking Sora's head and sending him sprawling before continuing.

"I came to share a bit of mildly-interesting news: Seems your dear, sweet little Nutmeg…went and got herself lost in the Underworld.

"You mean you kidnapped her!" Hercules exclaimed, angrily

"Well, maybe…but why get caught up in the details?"

Hercules continued to glare at Hades as he whistled for his trusty steed.

"Oh. My. God. It's a magical, flying PONY!" Katy shrieked, bouncing in place.

"Ah, ah, ah, you can't leave now, okay. You've got a very important match today, against, um…the bloodthirsty Hydra! I mean if you don't stick around, who knows what little kind of "accidents" might happen." Hades threatened before disappearing back to the Underworld.

"Can you handle this?" Hercules asked the four of them.

"Um, do we get to use the pony?" Katy asked, petting Pegasus.

"You bet. You take care of the Hydra. We got the rest." Sora replied, ignoring Katy's statement, causing her to pout.

"I'm counting on you." Hercules said, clapping Sora on the shoulder and sending Pegasus after Meg, deepening Katy's pout.

"C'mon, let's get going. " Sora said, pulling Katy back towards the lobby, snickering at her whining. ("But I wanted to ride the Pony!")

**

* * *

**

As soon as they stepping back into the Underworld, they saw Phil lying on the ground. He told them a man dressed all in black had attacked him when he tried to ask him to be a backup hero. ("God dammit, Demyx!"). He pointed them in the right direction and they took off in pursuit.

As they proceeded, they could feel the energy being leeched out of them by the Underworld's curse. They'd just cleared the second room of Trick Ghosts when Katy flopped to the ground in exhaustion.

"Can we (cough) please (wheeze) take five?" She panted fumbling for her inhaler in her bag.

"Yeah, maybe ten." Sora agreed, flopping next to her.

"No, only five, the longer we're down here, the worse it's gonna get. The sooner we get the stone back from Dem—The Organization, the better off we'll be." Katy panted, praying that Sora wouldn't notice her slip up.

If he did, he didn't say anything, just nodded and rested his head on her shoulder.

After they caught their breath, they braced themselves and continued deeper into the Underworld.

They navigated their way through the giant maze and finally reached a clearing, only to find the Organization member (Demyx) waiting for them. Well, actually, no. He wasn't waiting. He seemed kinda startled when he sensed them behind him.

"Huh? Oh, you! Wait a sec, uh…Roxas?"

Katy paled, meeting the satirist's eyes and shaking her head, He gave her a sheepish look and an inconspicuous shrug, trying to convey that there was nothing he could do.

"Excuse me?" Sora replied, confused

"Roxas? Ah, it's no use." He sighed, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Sora demanded.

Demyx fished a slip of paper out of his pocket and began to read to himself

"Let's see here. "If the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition"…Right. Did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one…" He mumbled to himself, Katy silently agreeing. Demyx didn't really seem the "aggressive" type.

"You're bizarre." Sora commented, crossing his arms.

Demyx searched his pockets once more and pulled out the Olympus stone.

"He's gotta be the thief!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Now _that's_ just plain rude." Demyx said with a frown, holding the stone over his head to utilize it's power and summoned his sitar.

"Dance water, dance!"

"REALLY? That's the best catch phrase you can come up with?" Katy yelled as she hacked through the water clones the Nobody had summoned.

Once they were all destroyed, Demyx staggered back, holding his head

"Come back to us, Roxas." He slurred, holding a hand out to summon a dark corridor.

Then the cave started to shake,

Sora lurched forward, snatching up the Olympus stone, which had fallen to the ground. Katy followed him, noting the caving-in ceiling, pushing him out of the way just as it started to come down. She braced herself for the impact when suddenly she was being pulled back by the waist and sent stumbling to the ground.

"Katy! Are you okay?" Came Sora's muffled voice from the other side of the cave in.

"Yeah…I'm still alive." She called back, pulling herself into an upright position.

"Is the Organization member still there?"

Organization—Demyx! Demyx had saved her? Sure enough, she looked to her left and there he was, looking at her with that sheepish look again.

"Yeah, he's gone." She lied. "Man, this is way too _Land Before Time_ for my tastes…"

"What?"

"Never-mind. Not important. Just go find Meg. I'll try and find a way around."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just hurry! Before Hades throws her into the pit of despair or something equally terrible."

"Okay. Be careful."

"You too." She called back, barely making out their departing footsteps. She glared at her new companion.

"Great job, dude."

"Are you kidding? I just saved your life! Again!" Demyx whined.

"Shut up! Keep your voice down! Do you _want_ Sora to hear you?"

"Actually, that might not be such a bad idea. Once he finds out your _lying_ to him-"

"Over my dead body."

"_That_ can be arranged."

They'd unconsciously been drawing closer to each other, and it was around this time that they both realized it. Katy pushed Demyx back, turning her head to hide the blush that was creeping into her cheeks.

Why the _hell_ was she _blushing_?

"Look. Obviously, we're on different sides. So why don't you just go back to your hideout so I can find a way out of this." Katy reasoned, closing her eyes to try to dispel the dizziness. In all the confusion, she hadn't exactly had time to cast the stone of Olympus on her.

Demyx sighed heavily, but made no move to summon a dark corridor.

"Well, get going! Your friends are probably wondering where you are."

"They're not my friends. Well, most of them aren't. Far from it, actually." Demyx said.

"I really don't have time to listen to your life's story." Katy remarked, the protector-withdrawals already starting to take effect. "Get out of here."

"Yeah, because I just risked my life saving you so you could get eaten by trick ghosts. Not likely. C'mon. I know the way around."

"Why should I trust you? You just tried to kill us!"

"Yes, but you seem to be forgetting the part where I saved you from a cave in five seconds later. Now are you coming or what?"

Katy grumbled under her breath but complied, hauling herself off the ground and following the blonde back into the giant maze.

They walked in silence for the first few minutes before Demyx felt the need to open his big mouth.

"He's not very responsible, you know."

"Who?" Katy asked, distractedly.

"Sora."

This made the teen stop dead in her tracks and stare at the older boy in confusion.

"Why do you say that?"

"That's the second time _you_ risked _your_ neck when _he_ did something reckless."

"That's sort of why I'm here. I'm the Protector, that's what I do. And—wait, _second_ time?"

Demyx looked away, but Katy pulled him around to face her.

"Have you been _watching_ us?"

"Doesn't he know from the last time that it _hurts_ _you_ when you can't help him? It's like he doesn't even care!" Demyx yelled.

"He's just impulsive! And of course he cares! What does it matter to you anyway? It's not like _you—_" Katy trailed off and her eyes widened.

He'd helped her escape the nothing, answering her questions despite the orders he'd been given. He'd come back to get her to Sora in Castle Oblivion, even though he could have been killed for it. And he just saved her life even though it would have been beneficial to the Organization if she was dead.

"Oh, my God. _Oh_, my _God_. You, you do, don't you?"

Demyx was looking away again, but she could still see the blush on his cheeks.

"Holy—do you…like me?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Demyx sighed.

"I thought it was obvious from the beginning."

"Demyx…"

"Look, I know, okay. You're the Protector, "destined to follow the Keyblade Master and aid him in his quest" I know the story. But your just…and I'm…I'm a Nobody. I don't even exist. Right. So let's just pretend this didn't happen and get you back to your boyfriend, yeah?" Demyx ended his rant with another sigh and pushed a loose brick on the maze wall, causing a passage to open.

"Let's go. Please?"

Katy nodded dumbly and followed him. Trying not to think about how much more complicated things just got.

She followed Demyx through the passageway which ended in the room with the cave-in, but on the other side. As soon as they stepped foot in the room, Demyx summoned a dark corridor. Katy stopped him with a hand on is arm.

"Look, Demyx…Thank you. For everything. And I know it doesn't…change things, but in a different scenario, I mean if I wasn't…who I was. I could definitely see myself with you. And I'm not just saying that. You're a great guy."

"Even if I was still a Nobody?" Demyx asked after processing what she said.

"Even if you were still a Nobody." Katy replied with a small smile.

Demyx nodded, a stupid smile on his face.

"Thanks…Katy. It does help, actually." He hesitated for a second, before embracing her briefly.

"You better go." Katy said, returning the hug.

"Yeah." he agreed, releasing her and summoning a new dark corridor. He gave her a wry salute.

"See you later, babe."

"DON'T call me that!" She yelled after him, causing him to laugh.

She was just about to run down the corridor to find Sora, when _he_ ran into _her_, the talking animals plus Meg and Hercules in tow.

"Are you okay?" She asked, frantic

"Yeah, just Pete and some hook bats. Then another cave in. We gotta get out of here." Sora replied

"Couldn't agree more." She mumbled, following them to the Underworld exit.

**

* * *

**

"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite hero washout." Hades greeted them upon. their arrival.

"Nobody likes a sore loser, Hades." Sora said, smugly.

"Can it, keyboy!" Hades snapped

Katy snickered

"Keyboy. I'll remember that one."

"Then let me." Herc said, striding up to The Lord of the Underworld.

"Nobody likes a sore loser, Hades."

"Yeah, yeah, Styx and stones. Hey, maybe you should go check on that Hydra you neglected to finish off. I hear things are really FALLING APART up there, champ." Hades said with a smirk before disappearing.

The five of them exchanged glances, before running to the Coliseum

* * *

One hour and eleven Hydra heads later, Everyone was standing in the ruins of the Coliseum trying to get Hercules to snap out of his depression.

"I let you all down. I'm just…no use." Herc sighed, wallowing in his self-pity.

"It's not your fault. Hey, even a god would be exhausted." Meg consoled.

"She's right. Give yourself a chance to rest." Sora agreed

"You definitely deserve it. Plus it's not like there'll be any games here for awhile." Katy added.

"Don't worry about Wonderboy, here. I'll look after him." Meg promised. "I owe you guys big time."

"Don't worry about it. Just let us know if Hades or the Heartless start acting up. We'll take care of it." Sora said.

"Yeah, 'cause that's what heroes do!" Donald exclaimed.

Meg raised an eyebrow

"When did you three make hero?"

"Uh we'll get to that another time. Right now, we gotta hit the road." Sora said, avoiding the question

"Don't be strangers." Meg replied

"Sora, the Olympus stone." Katy reminded him, poking him in the ribs.

"Oh, right!"

He fished the stone out of his pocket and went to hand it to Hercules when it started to glow.

Katy rolled her eyes.

"Go figure."

Sora opened the next pathway and the party clamored onto the Gummi ship, Donald taking the controls this time.

"Hey, Katy?"

Katy turned around, furrowing her eyebrows when she saw he worried look on her boyfriends face.

"What's up?"

"Back in the Underworld, after we fought the Organization member, the cave in, he…he saved you, didn't he?"

Katy pasted on a confused face, even though it was killing her to lie, especially about this.

"I don't know, did he? I remember being pushed out of the way, but I thought it was from pushing you, you know Newton's laws and all that."

Sora shook his head.

"No, he grabbed you and pulled you out of the way."

"Well, that's a little weird. Why would he save me? And when did he have time? He was long gone when I came to my senses a few seconds later."

Sora shrugged, still looking troubled.

"Look, don't worry about it, okay? I'm sure theirs an evil plot behind the reason he saved me. Besides, would you rather he hadn't?"

"Of course not!"

"So?"

Sora nodded

"Yeah, I guess your right. It was just weird though."

"Yeah, definitely."

Sora kissed her lightly before going to fight with Donald over the controls.

Katy slumped in her seat, drawing her knees to her chin. This lying stuff was harder then she thought. Way harder. And now this whole thing with Demyx…she sighed, pushing the thoughts away angrily. Demyx was a Nobody. He worked for the Organization for crying out loud! He was the enemy!

Despite all that though, she'd meant what she said to him earlier. And that scared her more than it should.

**

* * *

**

**Meanwhile, someplace not-so-far-away…**

"Where have the others gone?" Maleficent asked frostily, trying to contain her anger.

"Beats me. They musta had some other matters to deal with." Pete replied

"Matters?" The witch spat. "You mean they had more important affairs to attend to than my return."

"Well, see, there's this Organization XIII that keeps getting' in the way—"

"Let those fools play their little game!"

"But what about those runts with the Keyblades? They've been a real pain, too."

"Oh has he." Maleficent said. "Very well then, I suppose you'd best tell me what's happened during my absence."

**

* * *

**

**A/N: Ok, so I know what your thinking. "This is now the third guy that has a crush on Katy! Mary-Sue alert!" But it's not, I swear! First of all, I consider Sora and Roxas to be the same person. So, him liking her is self explanatory. Demyx is my favorite male character in the game, so I had to give him a little more action then he originally had, plus he's part of the underlying plot I have going in my head, but you all have to wait for that to unfold! Here's a brief spoiler though for those of you who read my authors notes. Cassie and Ryan will be appearing in the next chapter and Cassie has a secret that could lead to a side story! So stay tuned, my pretties! REVIEW!**


	16. Cassie's Dilemma

**Authors Note**: **Hey guys! So I was gonna post this yesterday, but I sorta, kinda, fell asleep while playing. Heh, heh, better late than never though, right? I have two chapters for you guys today, and more to come in the following week! Thanks to: Xxnikkigirl123xX, Wormo The Green Lantern, mysterygirl123, and XLarkaX for their reviews. (If I missed anyone, I apologize, I just switched from AOL to Google and some may have gotten lost in the shuffle.) Also, thanks to ****Kurina the Imiko for adding The Only Exception to her/his favorite stories list! So here we go! This chapter is a brief interlude in the actual story, but I think you'll enjoy it!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy, Ryan, and Cassie, my OCs

POV's (After the Flashback)

_"Cassie"_

**_"Riku"_**

* * *

Cassie Halliday bit vigorously at her cuticles as the Gummi ship they borrowed from Cid flew itself to Disney Castle. Out of nowhere, she was overcome with a horrible feeling that something was wrong. The name Maleficent wormed it's way through her mind, leaving behind a searing pain and causing the boy who'd been sharing a part of her conscious lately to question what was wrong. She'd lied to Katy back in Hollow Bastion. Well, not _lied_ really, she really didn't know where Riku was, he was careful never to give her a clear picture, but she'd withheld the vital information that she could communicate with him through her mind. Ever since that day…let's backtrack a bit, shall we?

**Flashback**

_Suddenly, Cassie felt a jolt of…something rush through her. Whispers seemed to go off in her head, so many at once that she couldn't make them out. Screwing her eyes shut, she fell backwards onto the bed, faintly aware of Yuffie and Aerith calling out to her. She could see in her mind a boy with longish silver hair and deep aquamarine eyes. He was holding an odd looking blade shaped like a key. Cassie's eyes snapped open and she inhaled sharply. There was an odd weight in her lap and when she looked down, there were two key shaped blades resting in it. She made sense of the whispers just before they stopped. They were saying "Protector"_

* * *

_For the second time that day, Cassie felt the jolt of protectiveness. Keyblades appeared in her hands again, but they were different from before. There blades were black and had twisted handles. They looked truly evil, which was just as well. Riku was no longer himself. His being now housed darkness and Cassie could feel it seeping into her. She cried out, not wanting it to consume her as it had the older boy. She closed her eyes and thought about anything else, anything good, and anything light. The dark and the light seemed to clash within her and her eyes closed._

* * *

_Without warning, Cassie started screaming. Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith had tried everything to get some sort of response out of her, but nothing had worked. Now her eyes were wide open, her pupils blown out, making her green eyes turn nearly black. Her muscles clenched and sweat dripped down her forehead as she continued to scream bloody murder, thrashing on the bed. Aerith quickly went over to try and soothe her, but narrowly missed a blow to the head. Leon pulled her back by the shoulders and shook his head._

_"I don't think there's anything we can do. Whatever is happening to her, we can't stop it."_

_Aerith nodded sadly and they watched, powerless to do anything, as the young girl flailed helplessly in obvious pain._

_"No! Don't, please! Stop. Stop. __**STOP!**__" Cassie screamed her back arching and her eyes rolling back into her head._

_Then she fell still and all was silent once more._

_"Is she..?" Yuffie asked, tentatively_

_"She's breathing." Aerith said with a sigh of relief._

_Now all they could do was wait._

* * *

Cassie hadn't remembered scaring everyone to death. She was filled in on that part when she woke up a few hours later. However, she did remember meeting Riku. She didn't know where they were exactly, but it was really dark. In fact, looking back now, the only source of light was radiating off _her_.

_Cassie was confused. She had no idea where she was, but it felt like she had sprinted to get there. She was breathing hard and her skin was clammy. She squinted in the dim light and made out the prone figure of a boy in front of her. An unexplainable feeling of panic gripped her and she ran over, kneeling down beside him._

"_Are you alright?" She whispered, shaking his shoulder lightly_

_He jerked into consciousness, grabbing her wrist in a tight grip that made her gasp in pain._

"_Who are you?" He asked, voice hoarse._

"_Cassie. Are you…Riku?" She asked hesitantly_

"_I'm not going back to Maleficent if that's why you're here." He stated bluntly._

_Cassie shuddered at the name, closing her eyes against the sudden pain in her head. When she opened them again, Riku was staring at her with a look of realization on her face._

"_I had the Keyblade..."_

"_And it made me your Protector, yeah." Cassie finished, tucking some of her dark hair behind her ear. "Where are we?"_

"_The Darkness, I'm guessing."_

"_Behind the door?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_That sucks."_

"_Tell me about it."_

_They were silent for a few minutes before Riku spoke again._

"_I'm sorry, about your friend."_

"_Ryan? Don't worry. He'll be fine. Katy and Sora will fix him."_

"_You sound so sure."_

"_I am."_

_Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Riku jumped up, panic gripping him._

"_No, not for this. He won't use me to hurt her." He turned to Cassie "Use your Keyblade!"_

_Before she could tell him she didn't know how, it appeared in her hands, and, like it had a mind of it's own, shot a beam of light that caused the darkness around them to rip open in two places. Riku ran to the one that Hollow Bastion could faintly be seen through. Before going in, he faced her again and gave her a small smile. _

"_Thank you. You better go while you have the chance."_

_Cassie shot forward and grabbed his arm._

"_You'll be okay?" It came out sounding like a question._

"_I'll be fine." And with that he pulled away, running through the crack, which closed behind him._

_Cassie sighed and went through the other one. Sometime later she woke up in Traverse Town, Katy sitting next to her, alive and in one piece. She didn't tell her what happened. She played dumb and had been playing dumb ever since then._

**End Flashback**

* * *

Katy didn't know that she'd been equally interested in going to Castle Oblivion because, somehow, she new Riku was there. She didn't know if the Organization member that helped Katy didn't close the portal because he was forgetful, or if he new she needed to use it. All she _did _know was that she went through the portal and met up with Riku in the Castle's basement. But that's a different story. In short, she helped him work his way upstairs and when he got to where he needed to be, he opened a dark corridor for her back to Disney Castle. And the rest, as they say, is history. Ever since then, she'd been able to communicate with Riku telepathically. She assumed it was the Protector part of her adapting to the fact that she couldn't get to him. So, coming back to the present, She was currently having a fight with Riku about her "half-assed plan to save Disney Castle" in her mind, resulting in a migraine headache and bloody cuticles.

"_**If Maleficent's there you should be going in the opposite direction."**_

"_I can't! Queen Minnie helped me when my world was destroyed, and when I needed to come find you. Now I need to return the favor."_

"_**You're being stupid."**_

"_I don't care! And quit being so concerned! _I'm_ the Protector, not you! Jeez, worse than my mom."_

"_**Very funny."**_

"_It wasn't a joke. Leave me alone."_

She cut of the connection, miffed that he was treating her like a five year old. Sure, she didn't have Katy's bravado, but, dammit, she wasn't helpless! She could hold her own in a fight, Yuffie had been teaching her, much to Ryan's excitement. The ship suddenly came to a jerky stop and through the window; she could see Katy, Sora, and the rest looking at the newly arrived ship confusedly. Sighing heavily, she brushed past Ryan and made her way into the hanger, biting off another chunk of skin as she did so, causing her finger to bleed.

She deserved it.

* * *

**A/N****: Don't worry; the actual chapter is on its way. I just have to finish writing it. So as you can probably tell, I'm thinking about doing a side story with Reverse/Rebirth, but don't get your hopes for it to be up soon. If I do write it, it won't be until sometime in October/November. So, that's that. Next chapter out in an hour, maybe two if my mom comes back from work and sees I haven't vacuumed…REVIEW!**


	17. An Interlude at Disney Castle

**Author's Note****: So I'm back, and I know that there is no excuse in the world that will make up for all of the time I've been away from this story, so I'm not going to make any. Yes, I am a horrible person, but this horrible person is hell bent on finishing this story and I'm not stopping until I do. I leave for college on August 24****th**** and my ultimate goal is to have this finished by then. I don't care if you don't believe me, I'll show all of you! *****cue evil laugh*****. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorite this story so far. I've still been getting new readers and reviewers to this day, and even a few PM's asking where I am. I can't thank you enough for your support; you're all the other half of the reason why I'm finishing this. Well, we have quite a ways to go, so I'll let you get to it. The last chapter was kind of a weird one, so there's no recap, sorry about that! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

* * *

"Uh, Katy?"

Katy looked up from her iPod and met Sora's uneasy gaze. He pointed out the window and she followed his finger to see another ship landing in the hanger of Disney Castle. More specifically, the ship Queen Minnie had given to Cassie when she came to look for her and Ryan. Leaping up out of her seat, Katy ran out of the cockpit, jumped off the stairs by the door and promptly tackled her friend in a rib splitting hug.

"What are you guys doing here?" She exclaimed, hugging Ryan as well, then looking at the pair in disbelief.

"Cass's Spidey Sense was tingling…said the Queen was in trouble." Ryan explained nodding to Sora, Donald and Goofy in greeting.

"Yeah, we got the same feeling." Sora replied looking around the hanger curiously.

It was his first trip to Disney Castle, and, as far as he knew, Katy's too. Realizing this, she copied his looks of disbelief causing Ryan to disguise a snort with a cough. He obviously still wasn't supportive of plan "keep-Sora-in-the-dark". Katy wasn't a fan either, but what could she do. The entire universe was counting on her. Or something along those lines anyway.

"You're back!"

The small group stopped conversing and turned just in time to see Chip N' Dale come rushing into the hangar.

"Move it! Let's go!" Dale exclaimed, out of breath

"Queen Minnie needs to see you!" Chip clarified

"The castle is in danger! Hurry! To the library!"

"I knew it" Cassie muttered under her breath as they all rushed to follow the techno savvy chipmunks.

They ran through the courtyard, down many intricate hallways until they reached the library. Donald and Goofy hurried forward and saluted Minnie respectfully.

"Your Majesty! Queen Minnie! We're back!" Donald said, his chest puffed out.

"Oh, you're here!" She replied, her voice relieved

"Didja happen to summon us, your Majesty?" Goofy asked.

"Yes."

"So where's the King?" Sora asked, striding up

Queen Minnie gave Sora a long look, tilting her head to the side. Donald jumped up, pushing Sora's head down.

"Excuse him. This is our friend Sora."

"Oh, Sora!" Minnie exclaimed "The King told me all about you in his letters. He says you're a very brave young man."

Katy cleared her throat loudly, keeping up the façade of not knowing the Queen.

"And this is our friend Katy and her friends Cassie and Ryan."

"Nice to meet you." Katy said, bowing her head slightly.

"Likewise" The Queen replied, showing Katy that she understood with a knowing glance. "Cassie had told me so much about you and Ryan, I feel as though we already know each other."

"Cassie knows the queen?" Sora asked his girlfriend.

"Yeah, when the Heartless took over our world, Cass ended up here. She flew one of the Queens ships to Traverse Town, where we met." Katy replied

Sora nodded, then turned back to the Queen

"So, do you know where the King is?"

Minnie shook her head sadly, and the party sighed.

"Your Majesty, what are the Heartless doing in your castle?" Donald asked.

"Yeah, they were never here before. I thought you had a way of keeping them out." Cassie added.

The Queen had obviously been kept well out of the loop because she gasped in surprise.

"Oh! So those are the Heartless."

Must be nice to live in a nice, safe, world…

"Don't worry, We'll take care of 'em!" Sora reassured her.

The Queen smiled

"I know I can count on all of you. Now, there's something I'd like you all to see. Would you please escort me to the audience chamber?"

They all agreed and got ready to leave. Just as they were about to set off, the Queen gasped.

"Oh! I forgot to warn everyone else the castle is in danger! We have to make sure they're hidden somewhere safe!"

"Don't worry, we're on it." Sora said confidently.

Katy snorted.

"Okay then, lead the way."

Sora opened his mouth to retort before realizing he didn't actually know the way.

"No worries" Cassie said. "We'll split up. I'll go with Ryan and warn the others, you guys go help the Queen."

"Just you and Ryan?" Katy asked, warily.

"Hey! I'm not completely useless!" Ryan retorted.

Katy glared at him

"Have you ever actually killed a Heartless?"

"We'll be fine!" Cassie interjected before the two started a fight.

Katy chewed her lower lip nervously and gave Donald and Goofy a pleading glance. Donald rolled his eyes, but nodded.

"Me and Goofy will go with you. Sora and Katy can take the Queen to the audience chamber.

Cassie nodded.

"Okay, sounds good to me."

With everyone in agreement, they set off to do they're assigned jobs.

* * *

Cassie sighed as she ran down the halls of the castle, directing its inhabitants to go into hiding. At their insistence, Donald had gone with Ryan and Goofy stayed with her when they split up. She knew it was because Katy would chew them out something awful if anything happened to her two friends in her absence. While she probably should have been grateful, Cassie couldn't help but be a little miffed at her friend. She wasn't helpless and she was getting tired of people treating her as such.

Speaking of which.

"_**What's going on?"**_

Cassie groaned at the sound of Riku's voice in her head, causing Goofy to give her a strange look.

"I'm good, just tired" She reassured the Queen's knight before answering the pain-in-her-ass teen telepathically.

"_Not much so far. Sora and Katy are here too. Were trying to work out what's going on."_

"_**Are they with you?"**_

"_Not at the moment"_

She broke off the connection momentarily to hack at a wave of Heartless that ambushed them. Panting slightly, she checked the last room (thank GOD!) in the hallway, finding it to be devoid of life. She turned to Goofy.

"That's it for our side. Let's go meet the Queen."

He nodded and began walking in the direction of the audience chamber. Cassie followed, lagging behind slightly and reopening the link with the silver haired teen.

"_Sorry, had to kill some stuff."_

"_**Where in the castle are you?"**_

"_Headed to the audience chamber. Why?"_

"_**Maleficent is there. I can feel her magic"**_

Cassie bit down hard on her tongue to keep from whimpering in pain at the sorceress's name. Riku must have caught her mental panic, however because he began reprimanding her again.

"_**I told you, you shouldn't have gone there. It's not to late to leave."**_

"_And what am I going to tell everyone else?"_

"_**That you can't handle it. That you can't handle **_**her."**

"_I _can_ handle it. I'll be fine. I'm sick of everyone telling me what to do. I'm staying here and helping the Queen. If you don't like it, come here and get me yourself"_

"_**I—**_

Cassie forcefully blocked his thoughts from her mind, wincing at the slight pounding it caused in her head. Great, she'd probably just triggered another migraine. Looking up, she saw the audience chamber was just down the hall. Jogging ahead of Goofy, she opened the door and got a glimpse of a room full of Heartless before a huge beam of light came up from the ground and obliterated them all.

"Whoa" Sora said in awe.

"Tell me about it" Katy agreed, trying to catcher her breath. She saw Cassie standing in the doorway and grinned.

"How was it?"

"Piece of cake" The dark haired girl replied with a wave of her hand.

"Oh, good. Next time you get the hard job, M'kay?"

Cassie laughed, all previous annoyance towards her friend gone.

"Deal."

"So what _was_ that?" Sora interrupted, gesturing violently with his hands in reference to the beam of light.

"That was the reason Disney Castle usually doesn't have any Heartless." Cassie replied.

The Queen nodded.

"The room below is called the 'Hall of the Cornerstone'." She explained, gesturing towards the large hole in the ground. " Our castle has always been safe from worlds that are evil…thanks to the Cornerstone of Light which we keep down here."

The Cornerstone…of Light?" Sora repeated to himself before joining Katy and Cassie in their decent to the hall.

* * *

Rejoined by Donald, Goofy, and Ryan. The six heroes stood behind Queen Minnie as she gazed upon a glass ball of light resting on a pedestal, which was surrounded by thorns.

"This is the castle's cherished Cornerstone." Minnie explained. "Oh, but look! The thorns…they must be the work of someone very evil. I wonder what this could mean."

Cassie, who had already been rubbing her temples in discomfort at the sight of the thorns, gasped in pain when green flames erupted in front of the pedestal and an image of Maleficent appeared. She could feel Riku's presence past the wall she put up to block his thoughts. He was frantic…and probably waiting to say I told you so.

"Maleficent!" Donald exclaimed!

"No way…" Sora said in disbelief.

Cassie shuddered again at the mention of the name. She felt slight pressure on her hand and was drawn out of her mind to see Katy's hand squeezing hers. He friend smiled reassuringly at her before turning to glare and the green witches' holographic self.

"Well, well, well. What have we here…? If it isn't the wretched Keyblade holders and their pitiful lackeys!" Maleficent taunted, here eyes sweeping over them, pausing for a moment on Ryan and Cassie, and then glancing down to Katy and Cassie's entwined hands. You could almost see the gears whirling in her head and an evil smirk crossed her lips. However, she made no mention of her new observations and continued. "I promise you'll all be able to partake of my vengeance. But you must be patient."

"Just what are you doing here, Maleficent?" Minnie demanded.

The witches' eyes turned to her

"Ah, Queen Minnie. Radiant as always." She drawled with a mock bow. "I'm here on a property venture. I want this castle for my own. However, it's a bit too…"bright" for what I have in mind. I suppose I'll just have to fill every room with my personal touch of darkness." She tapped the cornerstone with a sharp violet fingernail.

"You'd better stop now if you know what's good for you!" Queen Minnie exclaimed, alarmed.

The party drew their weapons.

Maleficent laughed

"Very well. I'll stop…just as soon as this castle belongs to me!"

Then in a flash of green flames, she was gone.

There was a beat of silence before they all deduced she wasn't going to reappear.

"That lady needs a serious attitude adjustment." Katy muttered, letting go of Cassie's hand.

"What a hag." Sora agreed.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before. I looked through all the records in the library, but I couldn't find a single clue." The queen confessed

"Oh! We oughta ask somebody who knows a lot of stuff that ain't in any book!" Goofy reasoned.

"Merlin the wizard!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yes, that's perfect! Merlin just might know something about this mess. Let's ask his advice." The Queen agreed.

"We saw him in Hollow Bastion, right?" Goofy asked

"Yeah, let's go." Sora said following them in the direction of the ship.

Katy turned to Cassie, looking worried.

"I can stay here if you want. You look a little shaken up."

Cassie shook her head.

"No I'm good. You go. I'm fine, I just need to pull myself together." She stuttered out, head still splitting with pain.

Katy looked over her friend warily, but nodded.

"Okay, I'll be back soon…just think about anything else but her and breathe through it. The headache will go away."

"Thank you." Cassie replied gratefully. Katy smiled and gave her arm a squeeze before following Sora and the other's.

After they left, Ryan began to chat with queen Minnie, probably trying to take her mind off of her castle's invasion. Cassie sat off to the side, taking a deep breath and exhaling before opening the link between her and Riku once more. His frantic voice filled her head.

"_**What happened? Are you okay? Is she still there?"**_

"_She's trying to take over Disney Castle, I'm fine just a little shaken up, and no, she's gone for now,_

"…"

"_Well, go on. I'm waiting for the 'I told you so'."_

"_**I'm sorry."**_

"_What for?"_

"_**For not being able to help you. Sora helps Katy, I'm sorry I can't be there."**_

"_It's not your fault."_

"_**Yes it is. I let the darkness in. That's why you're here."**_

"_That's ancient history. It's over and done with. You can't change it, so stop dwelling on it. Katy forgave you, I forgave you, Ryan's okay and I think he's okay with you, Sora and Kairi never blamed you in the first place, so what's the problem?_

"_**You're so optimistic."**_

"_Well, maybe you should follow my example."_

"Cassie?"

Cassie looked up into Queen Minnie's worried looking eyes.

"Are you alright? You seem anxious." She lowered her voice "Is everything okay with Riku."

Cassie smiled to herself. Of course the King had informed Minnie that she was Riku's protector.

"We're both fine, majesty. Maleficent just shook me up a little and he's worried for me. This would be so much easier if I could just find him."

Once again, the Queen spoke softly

"From what the King tells me, Riku is not himself. He doesn't want anyone to see him while he's like this."

Cassie frowned. This is the first she was hearing of this.

"Thank you, your Majesty."

The Queen nodded and went back to the Cornerstone. Opening the link again, Cassie voiced her worries.

"_Riku, are you okay?"_

She realized that out of all the time that she's known him, that was the first time she spoke his name to him out loud. He must have realized it too, because he hesitated before answering.

"_**Yeah, I-I'm fine. Why?"**_

Cassie could detect the lie from a mile away, but she didn't call him out on it.

"_Just…it's gonna be okay, okay? We're gonna get through this and everything's going to be okay."_

There was another long silence before he responded

"_**Yeah, you're right. Thank you…Cassie."**_

It was the first time he'd used her name out loud as well. It was also the first time neither of them cut the connection, the lack of figurative brick wall in Cassie's mind was a relief and she felt her headache reduce greatly. Closing her eyes, Cassie sighed. How had she gotten herself into this horrible tangled mess? She hoped what she told Riku was true. She hoped that in the end, everything was going to be okay.

* * *

Donald's babbling shattered the silence in the Hall of the Cornerstone quite suddenly. Obviously he's been trying to tell Merlin what happened, but wasn't doing a very good job. The quartet plus our favorite wizard appeared in the hall with a pop and the ranting mage finally shut up.

"Perhaps I'd better just see for myself." The wizard said, approaching the pedestal while Donald pouted in the corner.

"Mm-hm, interesting."

"What's happening, Merlin?" Minnie asked, by this time quite panicked.

"This is not good. In fact, I'm afraid this is quite serious." The wizard replied, grimly.

He cleared his throat and with an exaggerated hand motion, a door appeared next to the cornerstone.

"What's that?" Sora asked

"It's a door." Katy supplied helpfully.

Sora shoved her shoulder playfully as Merlin explained.

"This is a gateway to a special world. Someone in that world is responsible for what's going on in this castle. Of that, I'm certain."

"Oh, boy!" Donald happily exclaimed.

"We knew we could count on you, Merlin." Goofy added.

"Let me guess, we're the lucky four who get to go in and find the guy." Katy guessed.

"Precisely. But—wait a moment!" Merlin stopped Sora, as he was about to open the door. "The perpetrators must be stopped, of course, but there's something else to do first. Somewhere in that world, there should be anther door, identical to this one. I believe our enemies are utilizing that door. As long as it remains open, the castle will be in grave danger."

"And here comes the catch." Katy muttered to Sora, who snickered.

Sure enough, Merlin continued.

"Listen carefully, Sora. You must find that door, and when you do—lock it with your Keyblade."

"Got it." Sora replied.

"You can count on us!" Donald assured them, giving the queen a salute.

"Now one more thing" Merlin said

GOD this guy doesn't shut up. Worse than Yen Sid, I'm telling you.

"You're headed to a very special world. While you're there, the nature of that world may tempt you to do something dark. You must resist that temptation at all costs!

"Okay, got it chief. Avoid talking snakes and chocolate. Can we go now? Katy whined, growing impatient.

Merlin nodded.

"Whenever your ready."

Katy turned to Cassie and Ryan.

"Are you guys coming?"

"No, We'll stay here and protect the queen. You guys go." Cassie replied.

"But, we agreed that it was your turn for the hard job!" Katy groaned.

"Okay, then me and Ry will go with your boyfriend and you and the "talking animals" can stay here." Cassie teased, knowing what her friends answer would be.

"You know what? Second thought, I'll go with these guys," She said, tugging on the back of Sora's hood. "C'mon, let's go."

Saying their goodbyes to the Queen and Merlin, Sora opened the door and the quartet entered the "special" world.


	18. Cornerstones, Cartoons, and Candy

**Authors Note****: Moving right along. Here's the next one. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just Katy, Ryan, and Cassie.

_"Cassie"_

_**"Riku"**  
_

* * *

The first thing Katy realized when they entered the world was that all of the color had been drained away. The second thing she noticed was that they all looked like old cartoon characters.

"This is the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened to me." She muttered, noting that even her voice sounded weird.

"Look! There's the Cornerstone of Light!" Goofy exclaimed.

Sure enough, there it was, sans pedestal…and sans castle for that matter.

"What's going on? Everything's in black and white!" Sora exclaimed, looking and his hands.

"Hey, this is kinda like…um…uh…" Donald searched for the right word.

"Déjà vu?" Goofy supplied.

"Yeah! That's it!"

"Really? Have you guys been here before?" (Heh, Steamboat Willie reference XD)

Before they could deduce if the talking animals were in fact re-living their pasts a large dog that looked rather familiar ran up to them.

"Hey, seen any bad guys around here?"

Oh, the irony.

The four exchanged glances before pointing at pre-Pete.

Needless to say, he was not amused.

"Why I oughta!" He put up his fists (paws?) as though he wanted a fight, then thought better of it and put them down. "Bah! I don't have time to waste on punks like you. So I guess I'll go easy on ya." And with that, he left in the direction of the pier.

"Well, there's our villain." Sora said

"That was easy." Katy added and the four of them followed their enemy to the pier.

* * *

When they found Pete, he was still rather miffed with them. And them chasing him wasn't doing anything to make him feel better.

"What's with you squirts? You got some kinda bone to pick with me?" Pete yelled.

"More than one." Sora retorted, crossing his arms.

"Them's fightin' words!" Pete exclaimed, one again taking a battle stance.

Then a steamboat whistle blew, distracting his attention. He tried to walk away again, but this time, they weren't having it.

"No way, dude. You're not getting off so easy this time."

Pre-Pete's battle skills were even worse than the normal Pete's…assuming they weren't the same guy. However both Pete's didn't like it when they lost.

"What's you punks' beef with me anyway?" He exclaimed, stomping his foot like a little girl who didn't get her pony for Christmas. "Who are you? You new around here?"

"Cut the act!" Sora exclaimed.

Oh, apparently he didn't think that Pre-Pete and Pete-Pete were different people. My bad. I overestimated his intelligence.

Pete, thinking he was going to be attacked again, jumped up, then fell to the ground clutching his head while the quartet looked on, now a bit confused.

"Y'know, somethin' doesn't seem quite right here." Goofy observed. "Are you sure you're Pete?"

Pre-Pete looked offended.

"Well, of COURSE I'm Pete. I'm the captain of the steamboat. So, stop botherin' me, see? Hit the road! I gotta go find the little runt that stole my boat!"

And with that, Pre-Pete crossed his arms and proceeded to pout. After deducing that he wasn't going to attack them again, (really, he didn't attack them in the first place) the quartet decided it was time to hold a conference.

"Gawrsh, maybe we made a mistake." Goofy whispered.

"I'm starting to think the same thing. He hasn't even called any Heartless." Sora agreed.

"Plus, this guy is even more of an idiot then the one we know, I don't think he'd even now what to do with the castle if he found some way to take over it." Katy added.

Deciding they should apologize, goofy tapped Pre-Pete on the shoulder.

"Sorry we attacked you like that Cap'n Pete."

Pete rounded on them, agitated.

"Oh, yeah? Well if you're really sorry, then go find my steamboat."

"Y-Yes sir!" Sora agreed.

With that, the four rushed back to Cornerstone hill. Pre-Pete was scary when he was angry.

* * *

"I thought for sure Pete was the bad guy." Sora sighed, running his fingers through his spiky hair in frustration.

"Aw, that would be too easy." Donald replied

Katy snorted

"Yeah, and since when have out lives veer been easy?"

"Good point" Sora said with a grimace.

"C'mon, fellas. Let's try to find that steamboat." Goofy reminded them.

It amazes me that he's always the one who's on task.

Sora and Donald both began to speak at the same time, it came out as some variation of 'I guess we've got/did a door to find say we would.'

Katy stared at them blankly.

"English, please? Or include subtitles when you speak."

"We have to find that door!" Donald exclaimed.

"Oh yeah." Sora said, grinning sheepishly.

"I don't see any doors." Donald stated, crossing his arms (wings?) with a huff.

"Great observational skills, Sherlock." Katy retorted.

"Huh? What's this?" Sora asked gesturing to a floating window with a tassel next to it that had NOT been there originally.

"I really don't like this place." Katy muttered as Donald pulled the tassel.

A scene started. There were four doors that were letting Heartless leave through them. In the background another door that looked suspiciously like the one they came through started to shake, and the four of them fell out of it.

"Look! There's the Cornerstone of light!" Goofy exclaimed.

Sure enough, there it was, sans pedestal…and sans castle for that matter.

"What's going on? Everything's in black and white!" Sora exclaimed, looking and his hands.

"Hey, this is kinda like…um…uh…" Donald searched for the right word.

"Déjà vu?" Goofy supplied.

"Yeah! That's it!"

"Really? Have you guys been here before?"

Then the scene ended.

"Whoa, okay, WHO was video taping us because that, my friends, was creepy.

"Heartless goin' out…" Goofy started

"…And us, coming in!" Donald exclaimed. He went back over to the tassel and pulled it again. This time, four doors, the same four doors that were in the scene, appeared behind them.

"Okay, let's get rid of those Heartless!" Sora said, drawing the Keyblade and heading towards the first door.

"Then what'll we do?" Goofy called after him.

"We'll worry about that later!" Sora shouted back, already opening the first one.

"Always the planner." Katy said with an eye roll, jogging after him, the talking animals close behind.

* * *

Through the first door was a construction sight. The sound of hammers and chainsaws filled the air.

"What are they building?" Sora wondered aloud.

No one had time to answer him before a hammer shaped Heartless appeared. Before anyone had time to draw their weapons, a very familiar mouse swung in on a cable and sent it flying.

"The King!" Donald exclaimed.

"Gee, he seems kinda different somehow." Goofy muttered.

"You think?" Katy replied, bemused as she watched the mouse wave to them from the top of the structure's skeleton.

And he wasn't the only one up there…

"Heartless! I knew it!" Sora exclaimed.

They managed to take care of the Hammer-frames and Minute bombs without taking the entire structure down with them. Katy thought it was a great personal achievement since she usually crashed and burned when heights were involved.

The King, if it was really him, shook Sora's hand and waved to the rest of them before taking off.

"Hey, look!"

They turned to where goofy was pointing to see another magical floating screen. Donald pulled the tassel and another scene started.

Maleficent was standing with her back to them. She didn't seem too happy.

"You absolute idiot! You've managed to fail at everything! And what's more, you foolishly thought you could take my place while I was away. Well, as of now you're finished. Mark my words, there will be no place for you. When our time comes!"

She walked away, throwing a "useless imbecile" over her shoulder as she went.

When she was gone, a familiar voice stuttered out,

"But-but…but, I" before the curtain closed.

The four of them stared at the screen blankly.

"What-?" Sora managed to get out, exasperated.

"Somebody sure was angry!" Goofy observed, referring to Maleficent.

"I don't understand." Donald piped up.

"That makes four of us." Katy retorted.

"Let's just try to clear the Heartless first. This place is okay, but we've got three more spots to check." Sora sighed. All of the logic started getting to him.

As they made there way to the next area, Katy lagged behind the group, lost in thought. She couldn't understand why the gods couldn't throw some good luck their way and have Maleficent stay dead. Katy, in truth, had forgiven Riku a long time ago for everything he did. All of the blame had to fall on the evil witch. Manipulating people when they were at their most vulnerable was low, really low, and Riku couldn't really be blamed for his weakness. And of course, on the subject of Riku, not came Cassie, who experienced the same pain she once had whenever in the presence of the old hag. Honestly, she didn't know how to help her. She had a pretty good idea of why Maleficent could no longer hurt her, but she couldn't be sure, and she didn't know if it would be different for her friend. The only thing she was pissed of at Riku about was Cassie. If he hadn't been so pig-headed, Cassie could have been living a relatively carefree life right now. But no, she had to get sucked into all of this craziness too. They should have T-shirts made up, because this was becoming a club. She was jerked out of her thoughts by fingers being snapped in her face.

"Anyone home?" Sora teased.

She smiled softly, batting his hands out of the way.

"Yeah, I'm here. C'mon, let's go."

"You alright?" He asked, brow furrowing.

"Spectacular. Let's get moving. I don't like this place. The lack of color is depressing."

Sora nodded, knowing when to leave well enough alone and followed her to the next area.

* * *

"Okay, who slipped me some of that stuff from Wonderland?" Katy demanded.

"The town shrunk!" Sora exclaimed.

"Or maybe like Katy said, we just got bigger." Goofy wondered

"Hey, Look at the toy cannons!" Sora laughed, walking carefully over to them.

"How old are you again?" Katy snickered, boys and their miniature weapons. Sigh.

Their attention was captured by the could-be-King again. He was gesturing frantically at them.

"What's he saying?" Sora asked

"I don't know. I don't speak…that. " Katy replied.

Then they "toys" came to life and started attacking them.

"Oh, man. They're Heartless!" Sora groaned.

After killing more Hammer-Frames and Aeroplanes, they managed to save the little town from utter destruction. Once again, the maybe-King shook Sora's hand and waved at them before running off. And once again, again, there was a floating window thing with a scene waiting for them.

It was a continuation from the last scene. Maleficent was gone and the familiar voice was moping to itself.

"Aw, for cryin' out loud…she didn't have to go and say that. Okay, I might've messed up every now and then, but I'm a lot more things than useless. Why when I was startin' out. Oh…I miss those good 'ol days…what I wouldn't give to go back in time. What I wouldn't give…

There was a flash of light and a familiar door appeared behind the sobbing voice.

The person went forward and opened the door.

"Hey! I think that's my—

And then the scene ended.

"A door?" Sora said

"Once again, your observational skills astound me." Katy deadpanned, shaking her head.

"That's the door Merlin magic'd up!" Goofy exclaimed

"So it should come straight here, right?" Sora figured

"Sure, I think."

"Let's check it out!"

"This is getting really old!" Katy groaned as they went through the next floating door.

After a round of saving people from bunnies, flames, and speeding tickets they sought out the floating screen and watched the next part of the scene.

Maleficent was standing in front of the door from the last scene, which had been left open.

"Fascinating. This appears to be a portal to the past."

"Yeah! It was the strangest thing." The familiar voice replied.

"Stop gawking!" Maleficent yelled, "And start thinking of a way to use this to our advantage."

"Okay"

"Now" the witch continued. "Perhaps I could give you one more chance to redeem yourself."

"Oh, thank you, thank you! You can count on me…! So what do I do?"

"Patience, my dear…what have we here? Well if it isn't the Cornerstone of Light…Mmm… Now we can take the castle from those fools—but we'll have to proceed with the utmost of care."

And on that promising note, the scene ended.

"Maleficent!" Donald exclaimed

"I really hate that woman." Katy retorted

"She must have known all along!" Sora reasoned

"Let's see…if that door's connected to the past…" Goofy started.

"No, no, no! It comes here!" Donald interrupted

"This _is_ the past, duckling!" Katy snapped

"Wow. If we're in the past…" Sora began, catching on

"…we can change the future!" Donald finished his thought

"Hold on, fellas! Remember what Merlin said? He's got faith in us. And we have to resist temptation no matter what!" Goofy said, firmly.

"Yeah, no making yourself king." Katy told Donald sternly

"Aw, I was only joking." Donald replied sheepishly.

"Who'd want to change the future, anyway? So… what are we gonna do?" Sora asked

"Doors, bad guys…Gawrsh, my brain hurts!" Goofy exclaimed, scratching his head.

"You're not the only one. C'mon, lets go through the last door. There's nothing else to do right now." Katy said, trudging to the final floating door

The others followed after her, all in varying states of confusion.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Disney Castle, The Queen, Merlin, Cassie and Ryan were waiting anxiously for the quartet's return. Ryan had gone to "scout" the castle (he was still convinced that there was candy hidden somewhere. Worse than a five year old, I swear.), while Cassie opted to stay with Merlin and the Queen in the Hall of the Cornerstone. While they assured her they would be fine, she didn't want to risk anything by leaving to she stayed in her corner watching, as the thorns seemed to inch closer and closer to the glass sphere. Every now and again she'd feel a jolt or foreign emotion, which she knew belonged to Riku. It was kind of nice, actually, leaving the link open. For one, she didn't have a horrible headache anymore and knowing that he was there in her mind was kind of…comforting in a weird way. Another thing on her list of things she would never, ever tell Katy was that Riku's decision to give into the darkness had effected her as well. She could feel it every once in a while, calling out to her. Telling her to go to it, to join it, god, it sounded like something out of the Lord of the Rings, but it was true. Riku told her that even if she didn't embrace it fully (which he advised her NOT to do), she could still have some of the perks, like creating dark corridors and certain combat enhancements, but she refused. She didn't want to feed the darkness anymore than she had to. But times like right now, when she wasn't doing anything that put lives in danger; she could literally _feel_ the dark and the light warring inside her. Not a fun feeling, but just something else she had to deal with.

"_**Is it really that bad?"**_

"_You know, it's not polite to eavesdrop on someone else's thoughts."_

"_**Kind of hard. You think really loud, you know?"**_

"_Not funny."_

"_**I wasn't joking. It's hard **_**not**_** to eavesdrop."**_

"_Sorry. I'll work on that somewhere in between killing Heartless and having and repairing Hollow Bastion."_

"_**You never answered my question. Is the feeling really that bad?"**_

"_It feels like someone's playing tug of war with my heart. A very vigorous game of tug of war."_

"_**I'm sorry."**_

"_Again, I'm over it. And it wasn't really your fault anyway so stop with the pity party."_

"_**I'm working on fixing the darkness problem. Just hang in there."**_

"_Don't worry. I don't plan on converting any time soon."_

"_**Good, 'cause this sucks."**_

Laughing to herself Cassie shook her head and checked her cellphone, which was now completely useless except for telling time. The other's had only been gone for a few hours, but it felt like much longer. She hoped they came back soon. She needed something to do to keep her mind busy.

"_**I can give you something to keep your mind busy."**_

"_Why do feel like that was an innuendo?"_

"_**Because it was."**_

"_Pervert."_

* * *

Back in Timeless River, our favorite foursome was currently trying to get the Cornerstone of light away from the normal Pete. Pre-Pete or good Pete or whatever the hell you want to call him had been kicked out (literally) of the waterway when trying to reclaim his steamboat from normal Pete who was using it to steal the Cornerstone. Getting it back required swinging over to the boat on a crane and slashing the hell out of the crate that the glass sphere was in. Basically, everyone was confused and tired, and more than ready to get back to the present where everything was in color and there was only one of everybody.

When they finally broke the damn cage, Pete managed to get out of the water an was headed for the door back to the present.

Following him all the way back to Cornerstone Hill, the quartet arrived just in time to see Good Pete and Bad Pete duking it out.

"No, this is just…we can't have both of them in the same room." Katy groaned

Good news is Good Pete decided to help them even though the beat him up before. Bad news, Bad Pete decided to run all over the freaking _world_ while fighting them. When they finally beat him, everyone was even more exhausted than they were before, if possible.

"Serves you right!" Good Pete yelled to Bad Pete as he summoned the door that brought him here.

"Sora, the door!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know." Sora replied, running to lock it.

"Hurry, so we can get out of here!" Katy wailed desperately. "I miss my purple hair."

Sora locked the door and there was a moment of nice, peaceful silence…until Good Pete ruined it.

"Would someone tell me what'd been going on? Who was that creep anyways?"

Katy groaned from her spot on the ground and buried her head in her knees

"Just shut UP!"

"Hello! That creep was you from the future!" Sora tried to exclaim, but Goofy covered his mouth before he could ruin everything and possibly explode the universe.

"Oh never mind! Good Pete huffed "Well, sorry I put you guys through all that trouble."

"Yeah, well just don't make a habit out of it." Donald deadpanned, causing the others to snicker.

To show his undying appreciation and love for them, Pete decided he's let them pilot his steamboat, so they were able to put the Cornerstone of light back in it's rightful spot.

"Fan-freaking-tastic. Can we go home now? Please?" Katy whined, tugging Sora in the direction of the door.

"Hey! As long as we're here—" Donald started.

He didn't get to finish before Sora and Goofy dragged him towards the door and threw him inside, Katy laughing like a maniac, behind them.

* * *

Back in the Hall of the Cornerstone, the thorns suddenly disappeared.

"By George! They've done it!" Merlin exclaimed.

"Did you expect anything less?" Cassie asked and the Hall went from Dark and gloomy to bright and happy.

The door started to shake and Donald flew out of it, followed by Sora, Goofy and Katy, who was still snickering.

"Welcome back!" Queen Minnie exclaimed. "Because of your bravery, the castle is safe and protected once again. Thank you so much for all you've done."

"Yes, huzzah!" Cassie added, laughing.

Katy grinned, whispering something to Sora before going off and joining her friend.

"Hey! Headache better?"

"Yep, much better. The breathing totally helped."

"You'd be surprised how much I'd forget to with my head splitting open like that."

Cassie giggled.

"C'mon, let's go find Ry. He's still on his quest for candy."

The two girls walked through the shiny halls pausing every once in a while to ask a guard if they'd seen a boy on a sugar mission.

"Hey, Katy, how did you do it? You know, not writhe in pain whenever someone mentions _her_ in conversation?"

Katy sighed.

"I can't pinpoint exactly, but I think it was when I stopped being scared of her. I mean, yes. She's a fire-breathing dragon, quite literally, but, she had no power over me. She was dark, and I was light, and I was going to win. The end."

"I'm not scared of her. I'm scared of what she can do. To me, to you, to…" Cassie trailed off.

"Hey, Riku's not gonna make the same mistake twice. Even he's not that much of a bonehead…at least I hope. Me? I'll be fine don't worry about me. And your strong, Cass. Don't let her get to you. She's got nothing on you."

"Thanks Katy."

"No problem. That's what best friends are for. Sandbox love never dies."

"Isn't that a band?"

"Is it? I don't know."

The two girls continued wandering until they found Ryan, who had not succeeded in his quest for candy. The three friends walked back to the hangar, meeting Sora and the others who told them the Cornerstone had been the trigger for the next pathway. (Go Figure.) The quartet said their goodbye's to Cassie and Ryan, who were heading back to Hollow Bastion to continue helping with the reparations.

"If you head over there again, make sure to come find us." Ryan said, giving Katy a hug.

"I will, don't worry."

She clamored on the ship pulling Sora down to the seat next to her when he went to drive.

"Let's let Donald have a turn. Okay? You still have a bit to learn when it comes to piloting space vehicles."

Sora laughed, but nodded.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point."

"So did I miss anything important when I was looking for Ryan?"

Sora smirked.

"Well, Donald has a very special sweetheart back at the castle."

Katy laughed and Donald groaned.

"Really, now? Tell me more"

Needless to say, if ducks could blush, Donald would have been bright red the whole rest of the trip.

* * *

**A/N****: Sorry if this chapter was as boring for you to read as it was for me to write. I tried to keep things interesting, but Timeless River is a pretty boring world. I'll have more chapters up tomorrow! See ya then!**


	19. The Reason Why Sweaters Unravel

**Authors Note****: Hello again. First off, thanks to SpringBorn, ****psychicshipping, ****Xxnikkigirl123xX and Dracula X for reviewing and to the ladder two for following/favorite-ing. I was surprised to get any reviews/followers/favorites at all considering how long I was gone, so thanks for being amazing and sticking around. Whelp! Here's the beginning of Port Royal for ya! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

* * *

While flying to the next world, Katy, (who usually spent her time finding new ways to make Donald want to throw her out of the ship), was sitting rather quietly in the corner, and contemplating the lie that had become her life.

For one, there was the entire episode in Castle Oblivion. As ecstatic as she was that Sora chose to have his old memories back, the memories he lost were pretty important too. He'd defeated 3 out of the thirteen Organization members (and since Roxas isn't with them anymore, shouldn't that make them Organization IX?) and had replaced Kairi in his mind with Naminé. Those were some pretty big, life altering things that probably should be remembered.

Then there was Roxas. Roxas, who if you wanted to make things more complicated was half of him. While he wasn't someone that she had to worry about, she could only imagine the reaction Sora would have to what his "other half" had been doing with his Keyblade while he was asleep.

And finally, there was the 'Axel and Demyx' problem. Axel was definitely the type of guy who would give everything away to start a fight, vanish after said fight, and leave Katy to deal with the fallout. Not something she was looking forward to. She needed to look into purchasing a muzzle and finding a way to permanently attach it to the redhead's face. And then there was Demyx. If it wasn't enough that he wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box and might accidently let something slip, he had a freaking _thing_ for her. Just thinking about it made her want to bang her head against the wall. The worst part was that it really shouldn't matter to her, but deep, deep, down where she hid her deepest darkest secrets, she kind of had a teeny-tiny, not-even-noteworthy-if-he-hadn't-said-something crush on him too. And she was a horrible person for it.

The thing about traveling with the terrible trio was that they were usually the ones she discussed these types of things with. And since that was strictly prohibited, she kept it all locked up in her mind in a drawer labeled "don't ever go there" and that's where it stayed, waiting for the day it would all become too much so it could explode and ruin her life.

Yeah, she was screwed

Drawing herself out of her pity party, Katy realized that they were landing at their destination. Hopping up from her seat, she grabbed her hoodie and backpack and exited behind Sora.

The place they had landed at would not be winning any awards for cheerfulness any time soon…or cleanliness. They ran up some brick steps to an overlook and found that some treacherous looking ocean surrounded them.

"Wow…" Donald said in awe

"This place is—" Sora searched for a good word.

"Desperately in need of a mop and bucket?" Katy supplied.

"I was gonna say different, but that works too."

Shrieks of panic from somewhere below them caught their attention.

"Organization XIII?" Goofy asked

"Or the Heartless" Katy said grimly, drawing her swords. "C'mon, let's get down there.

* * *

Meanwhile, our favorite villain (who apparently we haven't seen enough of yet) was already two steps ahead and was talking to the group of pirates who caused the shrieking.

"Aztec treasure, eh?" Pete asked.

"Aye. And thanks to the curse put on it, we are neither among the living, nor the dead." Pirate captain Barbossa replied.

"Really? 'Cause you look like regular pirates to me." Pete scoffed.

"Ah, but in the moonlight…"

Conveniently, the clouds parted at that moment, the moonlight filtering down and revealing the zombie skeletons that were Barbossa and his crew.

"Whoa! Now I get what you were saying'!" Pete said, quickly changing his tune. "Hmm, well, if you see two doofuses and two brats with Keyblades, steer clear. They got a kind of magic that don't belong in this world, see? And nobody knows what it'll do to ya, 'specially with the moon showing what you really are."

The moon fell behind the clouds again, revealing Barbossa's normal face, now with a look of interest.

"A match for Barbossa, you say?"

"Hey!"

Yep, it was about time for the four Musketeers to make their entrance.

"Yep, I knew it. Those were the punks I was tellin' ya about." Pete said to Barbossa.

Apparently, Sora doesn't enjoy being called names…

"Who are you calling punks? It's Sora, Katy, Donald, and Goofy to you. And don't you forget it!" He stated angrily.

"That we won't. We'll engrave it on your tombstone to be sure." Barbossa replied nastily. Then he addressed his crew.

"Men, half of you stay here and indulge these cullies'. The rest, bring me that medallion."

"Aye!" The crew said in unison. Half of them scampered off, the other three drew weapons and took battle stances.

"Aw, we only get to stomp on a few of you?" Sora taunted.

"Hey, Sora, maybe it's not a good idea to egg them on. I have a bad feeling about this." Katy muttered uneasily, her protector senses tingling.

Barbossa chuckled darkly and sicked his pirates on them.

Katy was having some serious déjà vu. The same thing happened to her when she tried to damage the Antisora. Nothing. She couldn't damage it at all. Except this time, it wasn't just her. None of them could damage the pirates and it was getting very old, very fast.

"It's no use. We can't beat them." Sora panted

"Aye, what do you expect?" One of the pirates called, ginning as the clouds were once again blown away from the moon and he and his two comrades turned in to zombie skeletons.

"Why do I feel as though we're suddenly in the middle of a bad horror movie?" Katy mumbled as the skele-pirates grinned evilly at them.

"You best be sayin' your prayers." One taunted.

"Hey, watch out! They can see ya! Stay away from their magic!" Pete called, frantically?

"What for?" One of the pirates asked, cockily

"Weren't you listening to me before?" Pete groaned.

Meanwhile, our four favorite heroes were quite interested in what he had to say.

"Hey, Pete, thanks for the tip!" Sora called back, ginning as she shot a ball of fire at one of the pirates.

After Pete's helpful hint, the pirates were taken care of quickly. But something was…off Katy couldn't shake the feeling what she was being watched. And it wasn't like, 'casual staring' watched it was full blown 'all eyes on me' watched. It was extremley unnerving and she wanted it to stop ASAP.

"Hey! This ain't over!" Pete's yell of defeat broke her concentration as she stared at the overlook in the distance intently, and brought her back to the situation at hand.

They watched Pete take off, and then it was back to business.

"If Pete's here, that must mean we have work to do." Sora deduced

"Yep. And that Pirate captain looked pretty mean, too." Goofy agreed

"Man, I'd hate to see him turn into a Heartless." Sora shuddered, then regrouped. "Weren't those guys headed to town?"

"Yeah. I think they were looking for treasure." Goofy remarked as the headed in the direction of Town.

Katy stopped Sora before he could follow.

"Do you feel that?"

He tilted his head to the side.

"What?"

"That 'someone's trying to burn a hole in the back of my head' feeling?"

Sora's eyes widened slightly

"You think someone's here?"

"Yeah, the whole time we we're fighting I could feel them _staring at me_."

"C'mon, let's go check it out."

He grabbed her hand and tugged her over to the overlook near where they landed.

Katy knew as they ran up the steps that they weren't going to find anything. The feeling had disappeared as quickly as it came. Whoever had been there was long gone. Sure enough;

"There's no one here. Do you want to keep looking or…?" Sora asked

"No. No, I was probably just being paranoid. Let's go find the talking animals, it's fine."

Sora gave her a long look, then nodded.

"Okay."

She did an about face and started walking, only to have Sora turn her around and kiss her on the mouth.

"What was that for?" She asked, grinning stupidly

He shrugged

"No reason. C'mon, let's go." He grabbed her wrist and lightly tugged her in the direction of town. Neither noticed the figure in the shadows follow them.

* * *

**Meanwhile, over in the town…**

"Where are you taking me? Let me go!" The governor's daughter, a.k.a. Elizabeth Swann, shrieked as a pirate easily three times her size slung her over his shoulder and carried her off to god knows where.

Just as they were almost out of sight, Will Turner came rushing around the corner.

"Elizabeth!" He called in alarm, rushing to go to her aid, only to be confronted by the Heartless

"What…are they?" he muttered at the strange bunny-look-alikes

"The Heartless! Watch out!" Donald's decibel level caused dogs everywhere to wince.

Sora and Katy, having caught up with the others after their brief venture, skidded to a stop between Will and the Shadows.

"We'll take care of them! Go! Take cover!" Sora said over his shoulder.

Giving the creatures one more lingering look, Will nodded and ran off.

Considering it was only a bunch of bunnies, the battle was over in under a minute. Will approached them again as they were wrapping up.

"Well done! My own fencing skills are not to be ashamed of…but I've never faced foes such as that before."

"No Problem dude, but, uh, who was that blonde girl they ran off with?" Katy asked, rocking back on her heels slightly

Elizabeth! I must rescue her! Would you help me?"

Sora nodded

"Of course! I'm Sora. This is Donald, Goofy, and Katy."

"And I'm William Turner. Call me Will"

"Okay, Will. Let's go!" Sora said, dismissing his Keyblade and motioning for him to lead the way.

"Right, we've got to get to the docks!"

Sora Donald and Goofy took off after him, Sora hanging back when he realized Katy wasn't following.

"Everything okay?" He asked, looking around for anyone who might be watching her again.

He didn't see anyone, but Katy certainly felt them.

"Yeah, I'll be right there, uh, shoelace." She said, motioning down to her half untied high top. "Go, I'll be right there."

Giving the area one last sweep with his eyes Sora deemed she was safe, before running to catch up with the others.

Katy re-tied her shoelace and got up slowly, eyes closed. Concentrating on the uneasy feeling she had, she tried to pinpoint where the staring was coming from. Shrugging she started in the direction of the docks. She passed by an alleyway and quickly, before the person following her could move away, she spun around, blades drawn and doubled back. Running into the alley she heard a gasp. She reached out blindly in the dark, grinning when her fingers brushed over material. Using all of her strength she pulled the person toward her then slammed them into the alley wall, causing them to cry out.

"Um, ow!"

Even with the blood rushing through her ears, she'd recognize that voice. Angrily, she blindly reached for the hood she knew was there and yanked it down revealing a platinum blonde mullet and a sheepish grin.

"Hey, babe."

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?" She whisper yelled, not wanting to draw anyone's attention. "What are you doing here you…you…STALKER!"

Demyx rolled his eyes.

"How original."

"No way, buddy. We are NOT having a normal conversation here. Either you tell me why your following me right now or I swear to God I will take your sitar and shove it—"

"Okay! Jeez, with the threatening! I'm not really doing anything, I'm just…observing."

"Observing?" Katy accentuated each syllable, eyebrows disappearing behind her bangs. "Observing _what_ exactly?"

"The lovely scenery?"

"If 'the lovely scenery' is the back of my head then yes, I'd say, that's exactly what you're doing." Frustrated, she let go of the front of his cloak and took a few steps away from him, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Okay when I turn around you are going to tell me that The Organization sent you to spy on me, and that's the ONLY reason that you are here, and it's going to be the truth, and that's what I'm going to tell my friends so I can continue lying to them for the greater good. Okay? Go."

She turned around, arms crossed, but Demyx, suddenly finding his shoes to be quite interesting, said nothing.

"Well?"

"I'll say it, but it's not the truth."

Katy groaned.

"This is not happening right now."

"Katy—"

"Don't 'Katy' me! You need to go, Demyx. Right now!"

"But—"

"LEAVE!"

"NO!"

Realizing that, once again, their screaming had brought them closer to one another, Katy took a few steps back.

"What do you mean, 'no'? Demyx, I told Sora I was tying my shoelace. And with all the noise we're making, he's going to be here in less than a minute! I'm surprised he's not here already! _You need to leave, now!_"

"No. Last time I checked, I don't answer to you. If I want to stay here that's my choice. And if I just so happen to be in the same place you are every now and again—"

"Every now and…Oh, no! You are NOT making a habit out of this!"

Demyx opened his mouth to retort when Sora's voice cut him off.

"Katy?"

Katy opened her mouth to reply, but Demyx covered it with a gloved hand. He restrained her struggling long enough to whisper;

"Just ask yourself where you'd be if I hadn't been at the Coliseum that day. You wouldn't be here. You're protecting him, but whose protecting you?" He asked before letting her go and disappearing through a dark corridor.

"Katy!" Sora's voice was more urgent now as he skidded down the alley and helped her off the floor.

"What happened? Are you okay? Did you find the person following you?"

Katy paused to catch her breath, trying to buy herself time to think of an answer

"No, it was…Dusks. A whole bunch of Dusks, they just appeared out of nowhere."

"Do you think is was The Organization?" Sora asked, drawing his Keyblade and looking around.

"I don't know. Maybe. Dusks usually mean Ax—" She stopped with a gasp, realizing she said too much.

"Dusks usually mean what?" Sora asked, looking at her intently.

"Nothing, nothing."

"No! You were going to say something!" Sora said angrily, hands fisted at his sides. "Same as in the Coliseum, when were we're looking for the Olympus stone. You started to call the Organization member by a name! Then the same guy _saved _you during that cave in! It's like…it's like you _know_ these people! If I didn't know you any better I'd say you were _helping_ them."

Now it was Katy's turn to get angry.

"You take that back!"

"Well, what am I supposed to think? What other reason would they have to save you unless you were somehow useful to them?"

"You're crazy! You haven't acted like this since…since…"

"Since when?" He yelled, exasperated

"You know what, forget it. If you want to think I'm working with them, that's fine. Let's just forget all of the times I saved _your_ ass. Tell me, how is _that_ useful to them, huh? Even though I can't physically hurt you, I sure as hell can stand around and _let_ you get hurt. But I don't, I risk my neck for you all the time! Oh, and another thing," she raised her voice to interrupt his rebuttal.

"If that Organization member _hadn't_ saved me that day, I'd be dead right now. D-E-A-D. But if that's what you want, next time I'll be sure to stand in the way of the cave in. Better yet next time I take a giant ass _sword_ through the chest for you, I'll do my best to stay in the coma."

On that note, she stomped past him, doing her best not to let the tears in her eyes fall. She knew this would happen. All it takes is one loose thread for a sweater to unravel. That's what her grandmother used to say.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and was pulled around to face Sora, who looked just as upset as she did, if not more.

"I didn't mean it like that! I don't want you dead, of course not! But…you'd be lying if you told me you weren't hiding anything from me, wouldn't you?"

Taking a deep breath, Katy nodded.

"Listen, Sora. Remember when you woke up in Twilight Town? How I was already up and had new clothes and everything?"

He shook his head affirmative.

"Well, think of the last time you saw me. I was bleeding to death in the middle of The End of the World. You put me on a ship with Cassie and Ryan back to Earth. How do you think I got from there to Twilight Town?"

Sora thought for a second and went pale. Slowly, he shook his head.

"I-I don't know."

Okay, so her theory of Naminé. Planting a fake memory to fill that void was a bust. He was just unobservant.

"Okay, you're right. I am hiding stuff from you, but it's because I _have_ to. Several very important people have told me that I can't tell you some of the things I know. You just have to trust me, okay? I know right now I don't really deserve it, and I know it's blind trust, but you have to."

Sora stared at her for a long time before giving her a small smile and a nod.

"Okay. I trust you."

"Just like that? You were ready to take my head off back there."

"I'm sorry, I just…lost my temper."

Katy laughed, rubbing her eyes with her palms.

"That's okay. You're aloud to lose it once in awhile. You're not Link. You have an opinion."

"Whose Link?"

"Culture reference. Not important right now. So, uh, are we good?"

Sora grinned, pushing her against the brick wall and kissed her.

"Yeah, we're good." He laughed, pulling away.

"Fantastic, so…"

"C'mon, let's get back. Will is probably having an aneurism, we've been gone so long."

Katy laughed and nodded, following him.

And then of course, she had to make the mistake of looking back into the alley again. Demyx was back, staring at her intently. She gave him her best glare, and he smirked, saluting her sarcastically before disappearing again. A feeling of foreboding washed over her, and Katy shivered. She might have dodged this bullet, but she hadn't won the war. Not by a long shot.

* * *

**A/N****: Okay, so obviously Port Royal is being split into two parts. I decided it was high time for some plot. I've always had a direction that I want this story to go in and in case you haven't guessed yet, Demyx is involved and I'll probably need input on it later. Anyways, hope this chapter was more interesting than the last. I'll have the rest of this up tomorrow. See ya then!**


	20. Royally Screwed

**Authors Note:**** Hey guys! I suppose I should say good morning...I'm sorry this wasn't up earlier today. I got tied up with the bank trying to pay my tuition today, and I was go ticked off, that uploading slipped my mind. Anyways, thanks to SpringBorn, kingdomdisney, psychicshipping, and one Anon. for their reviews. I'm still in awe that you guys waited around for me this long. So here's the conclusion of Port Royal. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.**  
**

* * *

Rushing back to the docks, Sora and Katy found Will, Donald and Goofy, staring off at the horizon.

"Okay, why are we all staring at the sky like it killed our puppy?" Katy asked, looking at each of them in turn.

"Oh, yeah." Sora laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Katy raised an eyebrow in question and Will sighed dejectedly.

"We were too late. Those pirates kidnapped Miss. Swann and took her to their ship. Now they've sailed and I'll never be able to find her."

Before anyone could offer any words of encouragement, a voice that sounded slightly accented and mostly drunk slurred;

"Then she's long gone. The Black Pearl is neigh uncatchable. Best find yourself another girl, mate."

Will's eyes widened when he realized the source of the voice was coming from the deck of a naval ship.

"You! What are you doing aboard the Interceptor? She's off limits to civilians!"

"Ah, good thing I'm going to commandeer her then. She'll make a fine pirate ship."

Sora's face lit up.

"A pirate?"

"Yeah, because the last ones we met didn't give us any trouble." Katy mumbled, rolling her eyes.

The man aboard the Interceptor jumped down to the dock, revealing his face to them.

"Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please."

Will, after surveying the man and the ship ready to sail behind him, made a decision.

"Take me with you. Help me hunt down the Pearl and save Miss. Swann." When Jack didn't look too interested, Will added, "I got you out of that jail cell, Sparrow. Do this, and your debt's repaid."

Still not sold on the idea, Jack shook his head.

"You'll have to win fair lady's heart alone, mate. I see no profit in it for me."

"Aw, c'mon, Captain." Sora wheedled.

"Are you sure you can sail her? All on your own?" Will asked, eyebrows raised.

Jack opened his mouth to reply, and then closed it abruptly. Obviously he hadn't thought of that.

"You've a point there."

Will smirked and nodded, boarding the ship.

"Thanks, Sparrow."

"Captain Sparrow." Jack replied automatically.

"Will Turner."

"That'd be short for William I'd imagine. No doubt named for your father?"

"Yes." Will answered, looking at Jack curiously

Jack grinned, muttering something about his luck changing under his breath.

Sora came up next, introducing himself and the others as they boarded with Katy bringing up the rear. Just as she was about to reach the deck, Jack stepped in front of her.

"It's bad luck to have a woman aboard a ship. Even one of such a diminished size."

Katy gave him a puzzled look.

"Did you just call me short?"

"It doesn't matter what I called you. I'll not have a woman aboard me ship…even a miniature one."

Giving him a glare that would put Maleficent to shame, she shoved hard at Jack's chest, trying hard to get him to budge.

"I don't think you understand. See the kid with the obnoxious hair? Where he goes, I go. End of story."

"Fine." Jack shrugged, turning to Sora, "Oi! Lad! Off my ship."

Katy stomped her foot, frustrated.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Look, lass. It's nothing against you personally. But either you stay and he goes or you both stay. I might not be able to sail this ship all by me onesie, but it's frightful bad luck to have a woman aboard and I'll not risk it. Savvy?"

She continued to glare at the pirate, hands fisted at her sides. She caught a glimpse of Sora, who was looking helplessly from her to Jack. She knew what he was thinking. It was better for just him to go than for no one to go at all.

"Fine." Katy gave in. "But I swear if anything, and I mean _anything_ happens to him over there, I'll know about it and make the rest of your life miserable, clear?"

"Crystal, darling. Now if you would kindly get off me ship." Jack lifted her by the forearms and placed her back on the docks, her glowering at him the entire way. He patted her lightly on the head before re-boarding the Interceptor.

"Well than Mr. Turner, you get us ready to make way. I have some effects to liberate."

"Aye, Aye!" Will replied, getting into the whole pirate thing. "But hurry!" he added.

"Naturally." Jack called over his shoulder.

"Sora, you really wanna be a pirate?" Goofy asked, confused

"Of course not!" The teen replied, probably leaving the knight even more confused as he walked off the ship and over to Katy.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He looked around, warily. "It's you I'm worried about. We never found the person you thought was watching you. And Dusks attacked you before—"

"I can handle Dusks and some Heartless. Just…just get back here as soon as you can. You know how it is when I can't get to you."

Nodding, Sora kissed her forehead and ran back aboard the ship just as Jack returned, Captain's hat, pistol, and compass in hand.

"Alright, let's get ready to make way!"

Will untied the ship from the dock and unfurled the sails, the ship started to cruise smoothly out of the harbor.

"No hard feelings, eh lass?" Jack called out, tipping his hat to her.

"We'll be back soon, Katy!" Sora called over the sound of the waves.

Once the ship was out of earshot, Katy let out a shriek of rage.

"Pirates!"

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann, not going by Elizabeth Turner to protect her true identity. (Totally not obvious she wants to marry Will or anything.) was having similar thoughts.

"You can release me!" She insisted to Captain Barbossa. "You have your trinket! I'm of no further value to you!"

"This is no trinket, missy. This is cursed Aztec gold. One of 882 identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortez himself." Barbossa replied, his voice low and rather menacing.

"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Barbossa." She scoffed.

"That's exactly what I thought. 'Buried on an island of the dead, that can't be found except by those who know where it is. Find it we did. There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all. We spent 'em and traded 'em and fritted them away, on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave them away, the more we came to realize…the drink would not satisfy. Food turned to ash in our mouths. We are cursed men, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed we were, but now we are consumed by it."

"How very sad for you."

Barbossa chuckled darkly.

"There is one way we can end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the cursed Aztec gold bust be gathered and returned to the stone chest. And the blood of every soul who dared tough the treasure must be repaid. Miss Turner, for ten years we've searched every league of these waters; every town and village, preying on sailors and settlers alike. 881 pieces we found, we despaired of ever finding the last. All these years, you've been safe in your bed, readin' your pirate stories, dreamin' of adventures on the high seas. We've endured torments worse than death itself.

He turned to face Elizabeth, who was pretty creeped out by this point.

"But now thanks to you, we have the final piece, at last. When this medallion is restored to the chest, we'll be free to roam the seas once more as men. No longer will we be ghosts."

Elizabeth gulped and stuttered out.

"And the blood that's to be repaid?"

Barbossa smirked.

"That's why there's so sense to be killin' ya…yet."

Now even more fearful for her life, Elizabeth sprang up and ran to the doors of the cabin, yanking them open. Upon seeing what was outside, she shrieked in terror.

"You see, the moonlight shows us for what we really are. We are not among the living, so we cannot die, but neither are we dead. You best start believing in ghost stories again, Miss. Turner. You're in one." Barbossa said with a grin.

With another scream of terror, Elizabeth ran back into the cabin. Barricading the door, she screwed her eyes shut and prayed someone, anyone, would come for her soon.

* * *

She just needed to stay calm.

They had been gone for about an hour, which meant she had been staring off into the distance for an hour. Wonderful. Now pacing the length of the dock, Katy did her best to focus on her breathing pattern, which was starting to become irregular.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Who was she kidding? She was freaking terrified. Out of all the times she hadn't been able to help Sora and had experienced "Protector Withdrawals", she had always been relatively close to him. In the same room as him more often than not. This was the first time he was so far out of her reach, there was no way _at all_ she could get to him. Trying extremely hard not to have a panic attack, she walked rather aimlessly back to where the Gummi ship was. There was no way she was waiting out here in the open. Teenage girl in the middle of a town overrun by pirates was _not_ a good scenario. Climbing aboard, she was ready to whip out her iPod to kill some time, when she realized there was somebody already on the ship.

Shrieking, she drew her weapons proceeded to smack the person over the back of the head.

"Hey! That's the second time you've injured me today! OW! Katy, cut it out! It's just _me!" _Demyx wailed, holding his arms up to deflect her blows.

"Funny, that doesn't make me want to stop HITTING YOU!" She yelled, dismissing her swords and continuing her assault with her fists.

Demyx let her attack him until she wore herself out, slumping against his chest.

Oh, shit. It was starting…

"I think I'm going to have a freaking heart attack."

"I didn't scare you that bad, did I?" he joked.

"No, seriously. I-I think I'm gonna pass out." She stuttered, clutching onto Demyx like he was her lifeline.

Slightly alarmed, Demyx slid to the floor, taking Katy with him so she was in his lap. He got a good look at her face, she was white as a ghost.

"You need to calm down."

"C-Can't." She moaned. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, she felt like she was breathing through a tube, and every one of her senses were on high alert. Her eyes were darting around wildly, looking for someone who wasn't there. Her mind was screaming, Sora, Sora, SORA.

"Sora..."

"He's going to be fine. You're hyperventilating. You need to _calm down._" Demyx said from somewhere very far away.

Trying to pull herself together, Katy concentrated on her breathing again. InhaleExhaleinhaleExhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Slowly, she started to relax. Faintly, she was able to feel that Demyx was playing with her hair, but she didn't have the energy to tell him to stop. She was utterly exhausted and had no desire to do anything that required moving any part of her body.

"Better?" The older boy asked, his tone still unwaveringly calm.

Katy made a non-committal noise and curled further into his chest. She was having slight déjà vu from The Nothing. This was how she felt whenever she came back from "visiting" Sora at Castle Oblivion."

"Wake me up if something important happens." She mumbled

Catching the joke, Demyx laughed and she felt him nod.

"Don't worry, I will. I got you."

Even though everything about this situation was wrong, she didn't have the strength to do anything about it. So she gave in. Gave in to the withdrawals, gave into Demyx, and gave into sleep.

* * *

Ignorant to his girlfriend's breakdown, Sora and the others had just arrived at the Isla De Muerta around an hour ago. They had managed to Save Elizabeth from the pirates' creepy Aztec ceremony and get her back to the ship in one piece. Unfortunately, Will had to take some extreme measures in order to secure her safety, so Jack had been left behind when they departed for Port Royal. Halfway through the voyage, they were attacked by Barbossa's crew and Pete and were now being held captive.

"Good work, Barbossa! Who knew it's be so easy?" Pate congratulated his ally.

"Barbossa, you coward!" Elizabeth spat.

"That's the last time I trust a pirate!" Sora muttered.

"The powder kegs are ready, Captain!" One of Barbossa's crew members reported, grinning evilly.

"Then I bid ye farewell!" The Captain said to his captives before leaving the cabin, Pete on his heels.

"What are we gonna do?" Donald panicked

"We'll be blown to smithereens!" Goofy observed as if they didn't already know.

"Why struggle, mate? A pirate knows when to surrender." Jack put in, dully.

"Are you serious, Jack?" Sora yelled, frustrated with the pirates behavior.

"Your average pirate, anyway" he grinned, slipping out of his restraints and setting the others free. "First, we've got to see to the gunpowder. I'm not about to lose this ship!"

"I still don't plan to trust pirates again." Sora grumbled

"Wise policy, lad." Jack replied, clapping him on the shoulder before running to put out the explosives.

They managed to throw all of the barrels overboard, effectively saving their own necks, and turned the ship around, heading back to Isla De Muerta.

Sora had a sinking feeling in his gut. Katy had been alone at Port Royal for almost two hours now. He knew she could hold her own against enemies. That wasn't what he was worried about. He knew her being unable to help him hurt her both physically and mentally. He hoped she was okay…

* * *

_On the deck of a pirate ship, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were fighting alongside Will and Jack, trying to fend off Barbossa's crew of skele-pirates. They'd been ambushed before they even got to the Isla de Muerta. Sora ran up to where the ships wheel was, bringing down another pirate as he went. Before he could turn around, Barbossa was behind him, the moonlight showing his true form._

"_Though we are neither living, nor dead, you can still die."_

_With that he stabbed Sora straight through the chest with his sword. The teen slumped to the ground, blood trickling through his fingers, which were clutching at the wound to no avail. He fell back to the deck of the ship and seemed to stare off into nothing. Before he closed his eyes for the last time, he gasped out,_

"_Katy."_

"_Katy."_

"Katy?"

"NO!"

Jolting out of the nightmare, Katy lashed out, propelling herself away from Demyx's body and into the wall across from him. Clutching her knees to her chest, she buried her head in them,

"Just a dream. Just a dream." She chanted, trying to grab hold of reality.

She opened her eyes and gazed at the teen across from her, who looked unsure if he should approach or not.

"I need to get over there."

"You're overreacting."

"You can get me over there."

"You're not thinking clearly."

"THE HELL I'M NOT!" She screamed, rising a bit too fast. Steadying herself, she continued to rant.

"You don't get it! You don't! This is _killing_ me. Anything can happen to him! Anything! And I can't stop it! He's there and I'm here and god forbid anything happens to him, I'm POWERLESS! "

"He's going to be fine." Demyx tried to reason.

"You can't know that! You _don't _know that. You don't know _anything_."

"Even if I take you over there, how are you going to explain how you got there?"

"I'll think of something."

"He already knows you lie to him, Katy—"

"And whose fault is that?"

Demyx stalked over to her and grabbed both her shoulders.

"Fine. I'll do it. I'll take you over there. I'd do _anything_ for you if you asked, but I'm not gonna be the one to take the blame when you and your boyfriend get into another fight. This is your call."

There was a long silence before Katy answered.

"I don't know what to do. I-I can't lie to him. Not again, not two hours after…before. But I,-"

"Listen, babe. You need to have a little faith in him. If I was Sora, I'd be a little offended right now. _He's going to be fine_. "

Katy nodded, then after processing what he said, glared at him.

"I told you a million times! Don't call me babe!"

Demyx shrugged.

"Sure, whatever." He crossed over to the ship's dashboard where Katy left her iPod before and began to shuffle through it.

"Ke$ha? Really? I thought you'd have better taste than that."

"Hey! She's not _that_ bad! And how do you even know who Ke$ha is?"

"One of the perks of being a Nobody. Dark corridors. I've been pretty much everywhere, and music is kinda my thing so."

Katy gave him a half smile.

"I know what you mean. It's kinda my thing too."

For the next half hour—one of the longest in Katy's life, they continued to go through her iPod, debating over artists and lyrics. Even though she still felt like she might die of a panic attack and even though she was going to hell for fraternizing with the enemy, it felt good to be normal again, just for a little while.

* * *

Three hours and 45 minutes. That's how long they'd been gone. After getting back to the Isla De Muerta, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack fought there way to the heart of the island's caves, where they were able to, after a lot of hi-potions and cure spells, defeat captain Barbossa once and for all. Sora unlocked the pathway to the next world, and all was well. He just hoped Katy fared as well as they did…

* * *

Peeking out the window of the Gummi ship for the umpteenth time, Katy's heart raced when she saw a ship in the distance.

"They're coming back!"

Demyx nodded,

"Okay. C'mon, I'll walk you back to the dock. No one will see!" He insisted when Katy started to protest.

They walked back down the steps of the overlook and into an alcove.

"Well, this is where I say goodbye." Demyx sighed, opening a dark corridor.

"Thank you…for staying with me. I know I become a nervous wreck, but—"

"It was no problem. Seriously, anytime." Demyx took her hand in his and brushed a kiss over her knuckles, just like he'd done the first time they met.

"See you later, babe."

Something he said before crossed her mind and she stopped him before he left.

"Hey, Demyx! Did you mean what you said? Back on the ship?"

He smiled genuinely back at her and nodded.

"Every word."

Then he was gone.

Katy made her way back to the docks and waited another ten minutes before the ship carrying Sora and the others docked.

Sora jumped off the deck before it was even tied down and ran over to her, looking her over.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry we were gone so long, we got ambushed and—"

"Ambushed?" Katy gasped, remembering her dream.

"Yeah, but I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Not even a scratch." He hugged her tightly. "I'm really glad _you're_ okay. I know how it is when you can't help."

Tears welled in her eyes that had nothing to do with what he just said. She was a horrible person. She'd spent nearly the entire time he was gone _worrying about her_ with another guy, who was working for the people who were trying to end the universe and happened to have a major crush on her.

She deserved to burn in hell.

"I'm glad you're okay too. Are we leaving soon? I just want to get out of here…"

"Yeah. We already said goodbye to everyone before so we can leave right now."

After saying her own goodbye's to Will and Elizabeth (Jack had taken the Black Pearl to god knows where back at the island. Good Riddance.) The quartet, together once more, boarded their ship.

As Sora took them up into space, Katy sat next to the window, music blasting in her ears, thinking about that one thing Demyx said to her that made her want to smile and scream at the same time.

"_I'd do _anything_ for you if you asked"_

She was in way over her head.

* * *

**A/N: So...yeah. Not all of the chapters are going to be like this. I'm trying to balance the plot of my story with the Kingdom Hearts stuff as evenly as I can without stuff getting boring. Let me know if you think I'm going overboard though. I have some stuff I have to take care of tomorrow (or later today, I guess), but I might be able to get half of the next world up for you guys. See you then!**


	21. Return of the Genie

**Authors Note****: Hey guys! As promised, here's the next chapter for you. Thanks to SpringBorn, psychicshipping, kingdomdisney, Angel Of Randomosity, and two Anons. for their reviews. Thanks also to nijy and SunsetGlory for their follows/favorites. So, yeah. Here's Agrabah! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable. Just my OCs Katy, Cassie, and Ryan

* * *

Upon arriving at the next world, Katy was happy to see that it was one they had visited in the past. Pulling the outfit she'd brought especially for Agrabah out of her bag, (She hadn't wanted to be unprepared like last time.) she emerged with the others in a white tank top, a pair of shorts, and flip-flops.

"Agrabah! The land of genies and ponies!" she laughed to herself, ignoring the strange glances it got her.

"There were no ponies here the last time…" Sora said, confused.

"I know. But Genie said he's give Aladdin one for me when I asked. I wonder if he ever made that wish."

"Yeah, I wonder how Aladdin n' Jasmine are doin'" Goofy wondered.

"Hey, maybe Riku's with them! And the King!" Sora added

"Aw, Keep dreaming." Donald mumbled, grumpily.

"C'mon, you were thinking the same thing!" Sora protested.

While the ten and the duck bickered with Katy periodically rolling her eyes at them, Goofy was lagging behind, checking out the scenery. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a red and blue parrot, flying awkwardly close to the four of them.

Wait, red and blue parrot?

"Hey! It's…um…uh…" He searched for the name "It's Iago!"

In a split second, Sora, Katy and Donald whipped around, weapons drawn.

"No, Wait! You've got me all wrong!"

"You're Iago all right." Donald disagreed, waving his staff threateningly in the bird's direction.

"No! I mean it's not the old me. I've turned over a new feather! I'm legit! No more scams. Promise."

"Bet that's your new scam." Sora scoffed.

"I don't know what's worse. Your act or the fact that a parrot just said the word legit." Katy mused

"You gotta believe me!"

"Pssh! Boring. Let's get out of here." Katy said, turning to leave, the others following.

"I was stuck inside that lamp with Jafar, remember? Well, I finally escaped. But then some things happened and…" He trailed off

"Free as a bird, huh?" Sora mocked.

"Those "some things" that happened must have been real bad. Good riddance!" Katy said, still not ready to be forgiving.

"Gawrsh fellas, he seems pretty sad." Goofy protested, worried.

Sensing a change in heart, Iago flew over.

"I want to apologize to Aladdin and Jasmine. Could you guys maybe put in a good word for me?" He asked, sounding desperate.

"Sure, we can do that, can't we?" Goofy replied, looking to the others for confirmation.

Donald Katy and Goofy exchanged glances, still unconvinced. So wrapped up in conversation, they didn't notice the Heartless behind them until Iago called "watch out!"

It was a seemingly endless supply of Shadows and Luna bandits. Because of the sweltering temperature, it seemed to last even longer, and they just kept coming.

"Where are they all coming from?" Sora panted, frustrated.

Two of the bandits spotted Iago perched on a clay jar. They went after him in a rush, causing the parrot to panic and knock over the jar in his rapid retreat. He flew in circles, knocking over other objects and coincidentally, creating an opening for the four heroes.

"This way!" Sora said, running down an alley, Katy, the talking animals, and Iago behind him.

After they finally lost the Bandits, the four agreed to let Iago tag along with them, although they weren't sure he'd been much "help" as he said. He'd just gotten lucky when he was trying to run away…

And so they began their long trek to the Palace. Joy.

Katy once again brought up the rear, looking around nervously. What Demyx had said about turning up where she happened to be every once in awhile was still fresh in her mind, and she was on high alert She hoped he was dense enough to try again so soon, and she hadn't felt that horrible "someone's watching me' feeling at all since they got here. Plus, Agrabah didn't seem like his kind of place. Not a lot of water in the desert.

"Look, we're almost there!"

Donald's cry of excitement broke her out of her thoughts. Sure enough, they could see the palace in the distance. Mood brightened by the promise of shade, Katy doubled her pace, bringing her to the front of the group.

"Let's hurry! It looks a lot cooler over there!"

* * *

As they entered the Palace courtyard, they quickly caught sight of the Sultan's daughter.

"Jasmine!" Sora called.

Jasmine turned around, startled, but her face brightened when she saw the familiar faces.

"Hello you four!"

They all bowed in greeting, causing the Princess to giggle.

"I never had the chance to thank you for before. You helped Aladdin defeat that awful Jafar and saved Agrabah."

"All in a day's work!" Sora replied, stretching his arms behind his head.

Katy didn't answer, she was much too distracted by the amusing sight of Iago attempting to stay hidden behind Goofy.

"It looks like the Heartless are acting up again, is there any way we could help you out?" Sora asked, concerned.

"I think we're alright, for now." Jasmine replied.

"And ya always got Aladdin!" Goofy added.

Jasmine looked away.

"He…hasn't been himself lately."

"Is it because of the Heartless?" Donald asked, looking around as though he expected them to pop out of the bushes.

"I'm not sure. Usually, he's the same cheerful Aladdin. But sometimes, he just seems sad. He leaves the Palace and goes off by himself all the time. I've asked him about it, but he says nothing's wrong."

If this wasn't a Disney game, I'd say he was cheating on her.

"He's gone again today, what if he doesn't come back this time?"

"Hey! Maybe he's got a secret girlfriend! I know! I'll go find out who she is!"

Apparently, Iago and I are on the same page…not sure if that's a good thing.

Jasmine gasped

"Iago! Quick, Sora! Catch him! I'll go warn the guards and everyone in the Palace!"

"For a parrot?" Katy muttered

"That's the thing! Iago's not…" Sora shouted after her, but the Princess was already out of earshot. He glared at the parrot. "Nice move."

"Maybe it's something you said." Goofy supplied helpfully.

Iago sighed while the others decided to work out the Aladdin problem.

"Let's just go find him. We're only in the middle of the desert. How hard could it be?" Katy suggested sarcastically

"Well, he's gotta be somewhere in town, right?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah, let's go. I wonder what he's been doing." Sora said, walking out of the courtyard.

"I was _kidding!"_ Katy mumbled with a sigh, following the others back into the blaring heat.

* * *

Making their way back to town, they weren't searching long when they heard a shopkeeper cry out

"Stop, thief!"

Abu, Aladdin's pet monkey, skittered over their feet, a very familiar lamp clutched in his tiny paws. Aladdin followed seconds after, calling a quick "Hi, Sora!" over his shoulder as he continued to flee from the angry merchant.

They soot there awkwardly for a moment before Katy busted out laughing.

"I forgot how much I like that guy." She snickered as they ran after him.

They caught up with Abu and Aladdin in a dead end alley, Aladdin being chewed out by the shop keeper.

"If you can't control that fur ball, put him on a leash." The man said, crossly.

"Look, I'm sorry!" Aladdin said, raising his hands in surrender and turning to his faithful monkey companion "You should be ashamed of yourself, Abu." He chastised, sternly, taking the lamp from him.

Handing it back to the merchant, the former thief laughed nervously.

"No hard feelings?"

The shopkeeper just glared at him, and stalked back to his stall.

Sighing, Aladdin rounded back on his pet.

"Abu!—"

He didn't get to finish his rant, because Abu was scampering towards Sora, Katy and the others, taking sanctuary on the lavender haired girl's shoulder. Aladdin grinned at them sheepishly.

"Hey, guys. Sorry about earlier. I was kinda in a hurry."

"What happened?" Sora asked, genuinely interested.

"Yeah, I thought you were over the whole 'street rat' gig." Katy added, playing with Abu, who was running back and forth over her shoulders.

"You know Abu! We couldn't keep his paws off that lamp."

At that, the monkey stopped his fun and protested by making screechy-monkey noises at Aladdin, who shook his head.

"No talking your way out of this one."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy snickered, while Katy glared playfully at them.

"Hey! Don't blame Abu, he couldn't help himself! Right?" she asked the monkey on her shoulder, who made a sound of agreement and snuggled into her neck.

"So Aladdin, What's been going on?" Sora asked.

"Well…"

Aladdin began to explain his predicament to them, and they in turn, told him about the Iago situation. They decided to go over and talk to the shopkeeper about how they could get their hands on the lamp. (Katy agreed to stay over to the side with Abu, in case there _were_ some hard feelings.

Meanwhile, over at the Cave of Wondrous Perils, our absolute _favorite_ villain (who we STILL haven't seen enough of apparently) was up to some trouble…

* * *

After the peddler agreed to give them the lamp in exchange for a treasure from the Cave of Wonders, our group made their way over and reached it just as night fell.

They fought through the Valley of stone, leaving a trial of defeated Fat Bandits, Fiery Globes, and Fortunetellers in their wake, and finally reached the final chamber, which featured a pink, diamond shaped gem suspended in mid air.

Because of his love of shiny things, Abu jumped on the gem, causing a row of menacing looking statues to appear. Since Abu would not let go of the gem, no matter how much they coaxed, they led him to the other side of the room where a niche the same size and shape as the pink stone was engraved. Abu placed the gem in the niche and the statue at the opposite end of the hall disappeared to reveal a doorway, which led to the chasm of challenges. Whoop de friggin' do.

* * *

After a long and puzzle filled journey that no one really wanted to talk about, they finally reached the treasure room. Filled to the brim with gold and jewels, it was every thief's wet dream. Fixing their gazes on the lard bejeweled cup at the end of the room, Aladdin nodded.

"That should do it."

Donald ran to the altar the large cup sat on, blissfully unaware of Pete's presence coming from the other direction.

"Oh boy! It's perfect. That guy's gonna like this!"

"Sure looks valuable." Sora agreed.

"Great! Now let's go get that lamp!" Aladdin replied, determined.

At the mention of the lamp, Pete's ears perked up.

"We gotta keep Jafar bottled up or he'll destroy Agrabah!" Aladdin continued, causing Pete to snicker with glee. He turned to leave the back way, snapping his fingers as he left.

Taking their cue, the Heartless appeared.

"Why does this always happen." Donald muttered

Katy was inclined to agree.

They defeated the Silver Rock's, grabbed the cup, and swiftly exited the Cave of Wonders, hoping they wouldn't have to return any time soon.

* * *

As they made their way back to the Bazaar, Katy's thought's once again turned to Demyx. She was thankful he hadn't followed her, she really needed a break from all of the drama, and killing Heartless uninterrupted was a good way to let off some steam. But, now that she thought about it, she was getting kind of worried. Demyx was pretty harmless, and he wasn't showing up for any other reason but the fact that he wanted to. They hadn't heard from Organization XIII since they visited Beast's Castle and Katy couldn't shake the feeling that it was because they were cooking up some horrible plot.

Her thoughts were once again interrupted, this time for their arrival at Agrabah's shopping center. However, the peddler with the lamp was nowhere to be found.

"Hello?" Aladdin called

His answer was Pete's muffled voice from behind a tapestry demanding

"Stop your whining and hand it over"

"Oh, no! I'm trading it for treasure! This lamp is going to bring me riches!" The shopkeeper replied.

Bursting through the hanging cloth, they were met by the rather amusing sight of Pete chasing the peddler around, attempting to get is mitts on the lamp.

They followed them all the way back to the castle courtyard, listening (still quite amused) to their bickering.

"Thank you!"

"It's mine!"

"Lamp hog!"

"Go away!"

"Hah! I win!" Pete help up the lamp, victorious until Iago flew over and snatched it out of his hands.

"Nice one Iago!"

"Way to go!"

"Don't drop it"

"Look out! Behind, ya!"

"Oh, he is so screwed."

Pete and the peddler were both after the parrot, grabbing at him as the flew towards the Palace wall, Flying up quickly, Both of his pursuers ran head along into the brick. The peddler was down for the count, but Pete managed to stay upright. In his excitement, Iago wasn't looking where he was going and he too crashed into a wall dropping the lamp, coincidentally at Pete's feet. The villain quickly snatched it up.

"Nice try bird boy. You just wait until Jafar is free. He's gonna make on beauty of a Heartless."

Yeah, they would have been worried, but at that moment the ground started to shake, so they had bigger concerns.

Just when all hope was lost (not really, it was only Pete, his plans never work) everyone's favorite Genie came flying out of the sky with a shout of "I'm HOME!"

Not quite looking where he was going, he swooped around Pete blabbering,

"Al! It's been eons!"

He tackled Pete into a rather awkward hug, still thinking it was Aladdin.

"Al, you princely little muffin, you! Cosmic travel can get so lonely without a friend. To think I left you forlorn and genieless. Oh the HUMANITY!"

"Uh, Genie?" the real Aladdin tried to cut in, but the blue guy just kept going.

"Al, have you been putting on weight? Aw, of course! What am I saying? You're living at the Palace now! Aladdin! Jasmine!" Gene split himself into two and copied his friends' voices, shooting fireworks shaped like hearts into the sky before appearing next to Pete again.

"I can just picture it! Wait, tell me. Am I being a pest? Just a big blue pest? Aw, who cares, Al! I'm just so glad to see you!" He gave Pete another crushing hug.

"Genie…" Aladdin said again from behind him, by this time Katy and the others were almost in hysterics.

Genie looked from Aladdin, to Pete, and back to Aladdin before stating "oops?" and pushing Pete to the ground. The villain panted.

"I'll teach you to make a fool outta me!"

No one heard him, however. Genie was too busy hugging the real Aladdin and Sora, Katy, Donald, and Goofy were trying to pick themselves off the floor. Pete glowered.

"Fine, time for plan B. I'm gonna finish off you runts right now."

He slammed his fist on the ground, summoning two giant Heartless, better known as the Volcanic Lord and the Blizzard Lord. Double boss battle? Oh, Pete you _shouldn't have_!

…Seriously, was this necessary?

* * *

Using their trusty-rusty action commands, there were able to take down the two Lords fairly quickly and with little injury, none if you didn't count Katy's hangnail, which she couldn't remember if she got before or after the battle.

Needless to say, Pete was not happy.

"You! You messed with me for the last time. I'm gonna get you yet." He ran off and no one bothered to follow him. He was such a fail-villain.

With the help of genie and the magic carpet, the rode back out to the desert and put Jafar's lamp in a heavy stone casket, hopefully where no one would ever find it.

Later on, they were chasing Abu around the Palace courtyard trying to pry a stone Cave of Wonders gem from his paws. Donald managed to get ahold of it because after shaking himself out of it's hypnotizing shine he glared and said "Aw, who needs it." Before throwing it to the ground.

Apparently, they needed it because it quickly turned into the passage to the next world that Sora needed to unlock. Lucky Abu stole it, huh?

Saying their goodbyes to Aladdin and Jasmine, and promising to come back (Genie still owed Katy her pony after all) they went back to the Gummi ship and prepared to leave for their next destination.

Upon boarding the ship, Chip N' Dale informed them that Twilight Town had re appeared. Happy as they were to be able to visit Hayner, Olette, and Pence again, they set course for another world that needed their help.

The re-appearance of the town made Katy even more nervous. She couldn't help but think something bad and Organization related was going to happen soon.

She was right. Back on Destiny Islands, Kairi was about to get the adventure she always wanted.

* * *

**A/N****: Well, there you have it! The next chapter is going to be another brief interlude type one which may or may not have some Cassie and Ryan stuff, so stay tuned! I'll try to get Halloween Town or at least half of it up as well. See ya later!**


	22. Hostages Will Stick Together

**Authors Note****: Hey guys! Bet you got scared that I was going on another yearlong break, huh? Well, that's not the case, so you can rest easy. First off, the reason this wasn't up sooner is because I've been recovering from Warped Tour. Long story short, I got kicked in the head one too many times and suffered a slight concussion, but I'm okay now! First things first thanks to: SpringBorn, angellove123, psychicshipping, and Angel of Randomosity for their reviews. Thanks also to nijy for favoriting! Anyways, obviously, this chapter is short, but Halloween Town is so freaking **_**long**_** and I wanted to post something since it's been a few days. I'm gonna try to have it up by tonight, but it'll probably be really late. If not, look for it tomorrow afternoon. Believe it or not, we're almost done! Halloween Town is the last really long chapter since I'm swapping out the Pride Lands for a bit of plot. After that, the levels and the chapters will start getting shorter and we will be finished! I never thought the day would come! Well, I'll let you guys get on with it. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just by OCs Katy, Ryan, and Cassie.

* * *

Pluto, King Mickey's faithful canine companion is a hostage that most people forget about in Kingdom Hearts. I mean Marluxia had to have dognapped him back in Chain of Memories in order for Sora and the gang to follow after him. But, now that the pink haired dude is defeated, Pluto just wanders around aimlessly, hoping that one day, someone will remember his existence and bring him back home.

Wait, what was that noise?

Ears perking up, Pluto followed the spiky, red-haired man down an alleyway. I mean anyone with hair THAT spiky has to know Sora, right? They must have bonded over their obsession with hair gel at some point in time. The man disappeared into a black portal, which closed as Pluto went to take a closer look. Saddened by his lack of rescue, the dog turned away…until a whistle cut through the silence. Running to the direction of the sound, he bounded over to another portal, which he went through without hesitation. Maybe it would lead him home.

* * *

Back on Destiny Islands, our resident damsel in distress apparently decided she was slacking and needed to put herself in harms way. Why else would she stare dejectedly out at the ocean, eyes all wistful like?

"Maybe…waiting isn't good enough."

"My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?" A voice seemed to come from everywhere at once and out of a dark corridor stepped everyone's favorite pyromaniac Axel! *cue trumpet fanfare*

"Who are you?" Kairi asked, nervously, eyeing the mans black cloak that seemed to scream 'pedophile'

"Axel." He answered back with a smirk. "I happen to be an acquaintance of Sora's. Why don't we go see him?" He held out a black-gloved hand.

"…Sora?" Kairi weighed her options. Choice one, go with creepy, pedophile looking dude, or choice two, stay on the island and be a disappointment to all of the other distressed damsels before her.

The sound of a barking dog startled her out of her thoughts. And suddenly, there was Pluto bounding out of a dark corridor of unknown origin, looking happy to be around someone who wasn't sending him off with letters. His happiness was sort lived, however because no sooner had he run up to Kairi then they were surrounded by Dusks.

Panicking now, both the girl and the dog turned when they heard a sharp whistle, the same whistle Pluto heard previously. Another unknown dark corridor opened, giving them an escape route. Axel chose this moment to speak.

"You and I have something in common, Kairi. We both miss someone we care about. Hey…I feel like we're friends already."

Chewing her lip, Kairi made her decision and sprinted towards the corridor, making sure she turned around to glare at Axel and say "You're not acting very friendly" in farewell as she chose choice number three, run off into the unknown with only a dog for protection. Way to be.

The inside of a dark corridor is no more inviting than the outside. It's…well…dark.

Seriously, what were you expecting?

"What is this place?" Kairi muttered to either herself or Pluto. With her, either one is fair game.

And, there's that whistle again. Pluto ran off in the direction of it, Kairi following. She caught a glimpse of a figure in one of those black cloaks before she was pulled into a tunnel of blinding light. Then everything faded to black.

* * *

"You okay?"

A male voice from somewhere in the immediate area was the first thing she hear as she came to. Opening her eyes, the blurry images of three teens her age came into view. Two boys and a girl.

"What…?" She groaned, head still spinning.

"You and that dog came flying out of a _hole_ in the wall! You nearly gave us _heart attacks!_"

Gee, Pence. Thanks for your concern.

* * *

**A/N****: Well, that's it for now. If you couldn't tell, I don't like Kairi very much, so sorry to those who do, but you'll have to deal. I will try my absolute hardest to get Halloween Town done for tonight. If not it will be up tomorrow for sure along with a chapter that my friend psychicshipping has been waiting for ;) Until then!**


	23. All I Want For Christmas

**Authors Note: Hello people of fanfiction! This is a little later than I wanted to post this, but that's my fault for sleeping in. Anyways, thanks to SpringBorn, Angel of Randomosity, and angellove123 for their reviews. So here's the much anticipated Halloween Town! The plot thickens! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just My OCs Katy, Cassie, and Ryan.

* * *

As soon as they stepped off the ship in the next world, a rush of magic swept over them, changing their appearance. When the light from the spell faded, Katy felt the telltale pressure in her mouth, meaning that her canine teeth had been changed into fangs. Halloween Town, then. She couldn't help but grin like an idiot when she thought of what happened the _last _time they were here. Sneaking a glance over at Sora she could tell her was thinking the same thing.

"So, Halloween Town, right?" He said, trying to dim the happiness on his face. Fanged pumpkin spawn are supposed to be menacing.

"Looks that way." Katy replied. This world wasn't horrible actually. She kinda liked it, and not just because of the reason you're thinking.

A loud squawk from Donald pierced the rather comfortable silence, and a cold wind rushed passed them in the form of a ghost dog with a red nose.

"Hey, it's Zero! How've you been, boy?" Sora asked as the dog floated around them before going down the path towards Guillotine Square.

Following their ghostly companion, they entered the square and gazed curiously upon the large ramp that had been set up near the well of questionable green substance.

"What do you figure—" Katy's question was cut off by Goofy's cry of "Look, it's Jack!"

Sure enough, Jack Skellington made his entrance on a poorly made sleigh being pulled by skeleton reindeer. Oh, and did I mention the sound of jingle bells?

Touching down on the ramp, Jack parked the sleigh and greeted them cheerily.

"Sora, Donald, Katy, and Goofy! Welcome back! And Merry Christmas!"

Anyone else get a throwback to Frosty the Snowman? When he comes to life and says "Happy Birthday". No? Just me? Okay then…

"Merry Christmas? Don't you mean Happy Halloween?" Sora asked, a smidge confused.

"Of _course!_ Halloween greetings from Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King!" He made a somewhat scary face, causing them to jump only slightly. He drew back slightly disappointed. "Forgive me, I'm in a Christmas mood. See, I'm running the show again this year, but I need Sandy Claws blessing, so I'm off to Christmas Town!"

"Okay, does anyone else think he's been drinking that green stuff from the well? Sandy Claws?" Katy whispered to the others.

"Y'know, I think he means Santa Claus!" Goofy put in helpfully.

Jack, oblivious to their whispered words continued on with his plans for a Halloween Town Christmas.

"Aren't these decorations wonderful? This year Halloween Town is going to handle Christmas, too. But first, we have to visit Sally. She's working on something no self-respecting Sandy Claws can do without. Come along, I'll show you."

"Here we go. I knew we were gonna get roped into this." Katy groaned.

"What did you expect?" Sora asked, laughing slightly.

Katy stuck her tongue out at him.

"I don't know! Maybe we could have had a vacation!"

Shaking his head at her fantasies, Sora grabbed Katy's hand and tugged her after Jack. Might as well see what was going on.

* * *

Hiding just within the tree line, Demyx scowled at the sight of the Keybladers entwined hands. He couldn't help it; it just wasn't fair. The subject of Nobodies' emotions was one of much debate over at The World That Never Was. Some of them, like Axel and Luxord, believed that they could feel emotions since there was no other explanation for the things they felt every day. Others like Vexen and Zexion strongly disagreed and believed that since they had no hearts they could feel no emotion, anything they did "feel" was simply a memory of emotions their somebody once felt. Demyx didn't know what he believed. All he knew was that whenever he saw the lavender haired girl, he felt…whole. And that wasn't a feeling he would give up so easily. He knew he was being stupid and he knew that she would probably end up resenting him for pursuing her, but he couldn't stay away. So he followed her. He knew from back at the Coliseum that the so called Keyblade Master couldn't be trusted to make sure she was safe. He'd been the reason she was sent to The Nothing in the first place, he was the one who caused her unnecessary pain because he couldn't be responsible for five minutes. So he'd taken it upon himself to make sure that she'd be safe. It didn't matter if she ended up hating him for it. Crouching down, he watched as they exited Dr. Finklestein's house. And defeated the Heartless in the area. Once they were done, he could just make out their voices;

"How is Sandy Claws supposed to relax with all this going on? That's it fellows! Sandy Claws needs bodyguards. Are you up to the task?" Jack asked, not giving them much of a choice.

"Us?" Donald asked skeptically

"Sure!" Sora agreed quickly.

The others glared at him, Katy shaking her head.

Their appearances had changed due to being in Halloween Town. He took in her appearance from her black hair to the deep purple strapless backless dress she was wearing and tried not to stare to hard. He didn't want her to know he was there.

"Of course you would have an obsession with Santa. How old are you? Like five?"

"Hey! Leave me alone."

"O-kay, whatever you want."

They small group made their way the forest, Demyx silently following.

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone's favorite little monsters were currently sitting in their mobile bathtub, scheming up their next prank.

"What should we bring along next time?" Lock asked

"A bucket full of caterpillars!" Shock exclaimed.

Barrel shook his head.

"Nuh, uh! Something even worse!"

The three continued to chatter until the bathtub came to an unexpected stop. Lock turned around and came face to face with a purplish-black cloak.

Uh-oh…

"Whose that?" The devil-masked kid asked, tilting his head.

"Some old hag." Barrel tittered.

"Silence." Maleficent glared down at the three children.

"A witch?" Shock offered up as green flames shot out of Maleficent's cane.

The sorcerous smirked.

"Perhaps you three could be of some use to me. Come along, all of you. I'll show you the true meaning of mischief."

Not wanting to make her any madder than she already was, the three children nodded, and their bathtub began to follow her to Curly Hill.

* * *

"Here it is! The door to Christmas Town!" Jack exclaimed, pointing to a door inside of a tree trunk, shaped like a Christmas tree.

The other four exchanged glances, although Sora seemed quite excited.

"The spooks of Halloween can get so tiresome year after year. I wanted something new. And I found this! Beyond this door is a world filled with wonders, the likes of which you've never seen. At first, I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything was so fresh and exciting!"

Getting even more excited and impatient, Sora couldn't help but interrupt.

"C'mon! Just open it!"

Jack obliged, and Sora ran in headfirst.

"It's official. I'm dating a five year old." Katy muttered, nervously looking at the dark tunnel which was the drop downwards. One thing had not changed about her. She still did not like heights.

"Well? Are you coming?" Jack asked

Katy blinked, realizing that Donald and Goofy had gone on ahead.

"Y-Yeah." She stuttered.

Glancing down the pit again, she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut and taking the leap.

She hoped this wasn't going to be something they did often.

Upon reaching Yuletide Hill, Katy noted that their appearances had once again changed. She and Sora resembled very goth elves, Donald was a snowman and Goofy was a reindeer complete with a blinking nose.

"Cooool!" Sora exclaimed gazing over at the little town below them.

"So where's Santa?" Donald asked.

"In his workshop." Jack replied.

They got up, brushing the snow off their clothes, and headed towards the village. Head still swimming, Katy stumbled a bit, pitching forward, Sora the only think keeping her from face planting to the ground.

"Whoa! You okay?" He asked, slinging her arm over his shoulder.

"I'm good. Heights. Evil." She slurred, still a bit dizzy.

Sora motioned for the others to go on, and sat down in the snow, pulling her down with him.

"You think you'd be used to it by now." He joked.

Glaring at him playfully, Katy grabbed a handful of snow and dropped it over his head.

"Jerk."

"Hey!"

They wrestled around on the ground until Sora finally managed to pin her by the shoulders. Katy pouted.

"Again. Jerk."

Rolling his eyes, Sora pulled her to her feet.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah, let's—"

She stopped, whipping around and staring intently at the door back to Halloween Town.

"Katy?" Sora placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey! I know you're there and if you know what's good for you LEAVE!" Katy screamed into the air.

"You think someone's there?" Sora asked, drawing his Keyblade.

"Let's just go. They're not hurting anyone. If they wanna follow us, let them waste their time. I'm not wasting mine going after them." Katy replied, irritated.

Taking one last look behind him, Sora nodded.

"Okay, let's go."

He took his girlfriend's hand once more and the two of them walked down to join the other's at Santa's Workshop.

* * *

Cursing himself, Demyx stepped out from behind a large snowdrift watching as the two figures reached the town below.

She was right; he should leave.

But he couldn't. He just…couldn't.

He really had meant what he said back in Port Royal. He would do _anything_ for her. She only had to ask. God, he sounded like a sap. Like that vampire dude from those badly written books back on her world. But he didn't know how to _stop._ He wished, now more than ever that he was a Somebody. At least then it would be fair.

How could he compete with the Keyblade master when he didn't even exist?

Once again feeling sorry for himself, Demyx followed them down to the villiage. He was just going there to get out of the cold. It wasn't safe to follow anymore now that he'd been caught. After that he'd go back to The Castle That Never Was and mope about things that he couldn't do anything about.

God, he needed to get a life.

* * *

After defeating the Heartless in the square, they entered Santa's workshop. Katy probably shouldn't have been surprised that they actually found him there, it was his house after all, but seeing the guy sitting in a chair calmly going over his list and checking it twice made a spark of child-like giddiness flare up in her stomach.

"Well, hello everyone. Did you come to see if your on my nice list?" Santa (freaking _Santa!_) asked.

Exchanging disbelieving looks, the four nodded and stepped further into the room.

"Your name?"

"Uh…Sora, sir!" The teen replied disbelief.

"Let's see…Sora…Ah! Here we are! Well, Sora, according to my list, seven years ago you told everyone you did not believe in Santa Claus." Santa said, eyes twinkling with mirth. "That is unfortunate."

Sora groaned and Katy giggled, patting him on the back.

"How about Donald and Goofy?" Donald asked

Santa consulted his list and nodded. He turned his gaze to Katy.

"And what about you, young lady?"

"Katy, well Katyana." She replied, blushing at her full name.

Santa didn't even look at his list, he just nodded.

"Of course! You're on the list, my dear."

"Am I on your list too by any chance? It's me, Jack."

"Jack Skellington?" Santa asked with a trace of alarm.

There was a crash from the next room, causing him to get up to investigate.

"What sort of trouble did you bring _this_ time?"

"This time?" Sora asked the Pumpkin King

"It's a long story." He replied, waving the comment off.

They followed Santa to the packing room and looked around for the source of the noise.

Meanwhile, hidden in the corner, Lock, Shock, Barrel, and Maleficent were watching.

"Why do we have to hide?" Lock whined.

"Silence!" Maleficent hissed, her eyes roaming over to the two keybladers and their friends.

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Jack brought Sora and the others with him. Now we can deal with all of them at once."

"What do you want us to do?" Shock asked a little too loudly.

"Whose there?" Santa demanded.

"Busted!" The three kids exclaimed.

Maleficent disappeared while Barrel threw something heavy at the window to break it and make an escape route.

"It's Lock, Shock, and Barrel!" Jack said in disbelief.

"What I wouldn't give to babysit those kids." Katy said sarcastically.

"Not those three." Santa sighed, shaking his head.

"I assure you they're not with us!" Jack replied.

"Whatever the case they've been quite naughty! Catch them and bring them back here. They're going to get a lecture."

"Uh, Mr. Claws? I wanted to ask you about Christmas—" Jack began

"It'll have to wait!" Santa said firmly, going back to his lists.

Getting the hint, the five of them left to catch the world's brattiest children. Hooray.

Santa settled back down in his chair and began making adjustments to his lists. After a few minutes he spoke up.

"You can show yourself now, young man. You're not fooling anyone."

Demyx emerged from the shadows, sullenly, giving the man a nod.

"You caught me. Gonna call in the cavalry?"

Ignoring his comment, Santa asked

"Are you here to see if you're on my nice list?"

"No. And don't bother looking. I won't be on there. On either of them."

"And why is that?"

Demyx laughed humorlessly.

"I don't exist."

Santa fixed him with a long look.

"What is your name?"

"Demyx."

Looking at the long sheet of paper, Santa smiled

"It seems you're mistaken. Your name is here."

Demyx's eyes snapped to the mans twinkly ones.

"That's not possible."

"My list does not lie. I will tell you though that you were a recent addition. I was doing some revisions when I added yours to the list."

"But I—"

"Perhaps you are real. At least to someone."

Demyx took a few steps back before backing into a dark corridor of his own creation. That couldn't be right. He was a Nobody. He didn't exist.

_He didn't exist._

* * *

Over at Curly Hill, Maleficent and the three children were plotting their next…well…plot.

"I was so looking forward to destroying that ridiculous Christmas Town, but now that Sora and his friends are here, I think a change of plans is called for. Revenge before pleasure after all." Maleficent said out loud.

"What kind of revenge?" Shock asked.

"The magnificent, malevolent kind of course." Maleficent replied.

"That sounds bad!" Lock exclaimed.

"Like Oogie's kind of bad!" Shock added.

"And that's super-duper bad!" Barrel agreed.

"Oogie Boogie? That bag of incompetent insects? Hmm." The gears in Maleficent's brain began turning. "How intriguing. And where might I find him?"

"Jack and his dumb, stupid friends destroyed him!" Shock pouted.

"Ah, yes. Now I remember. More intriguing still. I believe I'll bring your master back for you!" Maleficent decided, calling up her magic.

Oh, this doesn't bode well.

Minutes later Oogie Boogie was back in the world of the living. Or whatever world a sack full of bugs lives in.

"I feel like a million bugs!" The villain laughed.

Ha ha. Punny.

"I really owe you one for this, Maleficent."

"Indeed you do." The witch agreed. "Do you remember Sora, Katy, Donald, and Goofy?"

"Do I remember them? Ha! You're too much. I'll never forget what they did to me…" Wait for it…"Uh, what was it they did to me?"

Wow, obviously they didn't kill him epically enough.

"They squashed you like a bug!" Shock provided

"That sounds bad." Oogie said

"And Jack helped!" Lock added.

"Even worse!" Oogie growled.

"They _creamed_ you!" Barrel reminded

"That's right. That's right! That's one thing I won't be forgetting anytime soon! That's the last thing I remember and it's the only thing I'll remember until I teach those clowns not to mess with Mr. Oogie Boogie!"

"Yes, that's right. And I have the perfect plan already in mind." Maleficent sneered. "Have you ever heard of Christmas Town?

She turned around to find the Oogie was sound asleep.

Sighing in annoyance the witch approached the sleeping sack.

"It seems he needs more time to recover." She turned to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. "You three, stay here and keep Sora and the others occupied. My Heartless will assist you. Do not fail me!

* * *

Luckily, the bathtub that the three brats liked to ride in left really good footprints. They reached Curly Hill just in time to see the three pests jump into a cage that was hanging off a giant Heartless. The Prison Keeper. Go figure.

After a lot of climbing, jumping, and aerial combos (three of Katy's _favorite_ things. Note Sarcasm.) They brought the creepy Heartless down, letting Lock, Shock and Barrel free.

"Ah ha ha!" Barrel Laughed

"That was fun!" Lock grinned

"Let's go see if Mr. Oogie's ready!" Shock decided and the three scampered off.

"Oogie?" Jack exclaimed

"Isn't he the one who tried to take over Halloween Town before?" Sora asked, alarmed

"No! We killed him! _Killed_ him! And his house! And we almost died! Why?" Katy wailed. She didn't like Oogie Boogie. He bugged her. Haha. More puns.

"Fellows, I hope you're ready for trouble." Jack said grimly

"Don't we have enough trouble already?" Goofy muttered.

"Seriously." Katy agreed as they set off after the brats.

No sooner had they entered the square then they ran into Sally, who looked frantic.

"Sally, What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"Jack! Oogie's kidnapped Santa Claus! And he's headed for Christmas Town!" Sally exclaimed, out of breath.

"Ugh. I hate this." Katy groaned as they set off for the drop in the woods once more.

* * *

"Very well, you ingrate. You'll rue the day you spurned my help!" Maleficent shrieked as she left Oogie on his own.

Gee, he's really good at bugging people. Okay, I'll stop with the puns now.

Anyways, back on Yuletide hill, our heroes plus Sally followed the pillar of smoke to Santa's workshop.

Upon entering, Oogie grabbed Sally and promptly ripped her leg off, causing Katy to shriek until she remembered Sally was essentially a rag doll.

"Jack Skellington! I've got a score to settle with you Jack. You and your little sidekicks."

"What are you planning to do with Sandy Claws?"

"Sandy Claws? Who? I have no idea what your talking about." Santa lying on the conveyer belt caught Oogie's attention. Oh, yeah, he was still there. "And what is this roly-poly red guy doing here? Time to go, grandpa." Just as he was about to push Santa down the chute, Sally threw her leg at them, and managed to get Santa to safety.

Oogie ran into his control tower thingy he's added and proceeded to try and kill them. Again. Joy.

After running through color changing doors, throwing gift boxes, dodging Heartless, and slashing at potato sacks, Oogie Boogie was finally defeated. You could tell by the way bugs fell out of the rips in his body.

"That is so gross!" Katy groaned, stepping back so they wouldn't crawl on her.

* * *

"Don't you see Jack? Children rely on both of us to do our jobs. Halloween needs your attention, and Christmas needs mine. Urgently. I must be off." Santa, after giving Jack a great pep talk, retreated to his workshop. He probably never wanted to here the word Halloween again.

"He's right! If Halloween had become to routine, I'll just have to find new ways to make them scream!" Jack exclaimed.

At that moment, the mayor appeared, conveniently with preparations for Halloween.

"Good luck, Jack Skellington!" Santa, who felt it was safe now that Jack was gone, returned to say his goodbyes.

Jack's Santa outfit lighting up, signaling the keyhole to the next world interrupted him. Who picks these triggers? They keep getting weirder.

"We better get going." Sora said to Santa.

"Before you do, Sora, I believe there's a friend of yours who, if I recall correctly, was the one who told you there's no such thing as Santa Claus?"

"Oh, yeah…he did say that."

"Be sure to give him my very best wishes." Santa said, eyes going all twinkly again.

"I will, but…do you know where I can find Riku?"

"No, but don't give up. Remember, if you believe in Riku, you will find him. Just as you found me." He turned to Katy. "Same goes for you, Katyana. If you believe in him, he will be alright, in the end."

Slightly confused, Katy nodded.

"Thank you, sir."

The four trudged off back to the Gummi ship, both teens unusually quiet.

"We're gonna find Riku, Sora. I promise. Then you can rub it in his face how you met the real Santa." Katy tried to make light of the situation.

"Yeah. I know we will." Sora replied climbing aboard.

Katy made to follow, but someone pulled her back lightly.

"Seriously, Demyx?" Katy hissed, yanking her arm out of his grasp.

"I shouldn't exist." Demyx got right to the point.

Katy looked at him sadly.

"Demyx—"

"No, it's okay, we both know it's true, but…I think…Ever since I met you, I felt, different. And I know it sounds crazy, but—"

"Katy?" Sora's voice called from inside.

"Just a sec! Dropped something in the snow!" She called back before turning back to the blonde.

"What are you getting at here?"

"I have to go…just…don't give up on me, Katy. I don't know what you think of me, but just don't give up on it."

And with that he was gone. And Katy was extremley creeped out. She entered the ship, her appearance changing to normal as she thought about what Santa had said to her.

"_If you believe in him, he will be alright in the end."_

Who?

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter might be a short one. I hate the Pride Lands and it would be awkward to write them being lions and all so I'm replacing it with a bit of plot and some backtracking. Ever wonder why Keyblade masters have protectors? You'll find out! Stay tuned…**


	24. Origins

**Authors Note: Hey guys! So, as promised in the last chapter, we're skipping over the Pride Lands to have a little history lesson. Ever wonder why Keyblade Master's have protectors? You're about to find out! Before we get started, thanks to: angellove123, SpringBorn, Dracula X, and psychicshipping for their reviews. Thanks also to xXYuseiXAkikoXx for adding me to their favorite authors list! This chapter is going to include some stuff from Birth By Sleep, so if you are afraid of spoilers, then you can skip it. Nothing too important is going to happen, and if you think you missed something you can always message me. One more quick thing before we start, obviously this story has the potential of going two ways. Yes, I am speaking of Demyx and his coming destruction. Whether he fades like in the game, or whether he miraculously survives I'm leaving up to YOU, my wonderful readers and reviewers. I have no problem writing either scenario, so I decided to consult the people who have stuck with me through this wild ride that is my trilogy. Majority wins! So leave a review or PM me with how you'd like it to go. Anyways, onto the chapter! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable. Just my OCs Katy, Cassie, and Ryan

* * *

The Great Library. One of Disney Castles most overlooked features. The information that King Mickey had collected from his time as Master Yen Sid's apprentice all the way through his rule up to nearly present day was located here. Not many people knew about it, because the library was enchanted with a special bit of magic—it would only show the information the seeker needed, and that was only if the library thought the reason you needed the information was a good one.

What? You didn't expect the King to just leave the world's secrets just lying around for anyone to see, did you?

Demyx liked the Castle's library. The Organization more or less left Disney Castle alone—there were no Heartless there thanks to the Cornerstone of Light—so it was a place he could go when he just needed to get away from everyone. He'd only ever tried to obtain information from the library one time…when he needed to give Katy a logical explanation of how she got to Castle Oblivion before sending her there so Axel wouldn't decide he needed to "eliminate the traitor."

Another part of the library's enchantment was that none of the records could ever be destroyed. When Axel burned the page back in Castle Oblivion, it returned to the library unscathed. Demyx was reading it over for the umpteenth time now. He was quite fond of the bit of data that saved his life.

_When Eraqus was defeated at Terra's hand, Aqua took the advice he gave her when she became a Keyblade Master. She sealed the world's keyhole from darkness and recreated it so only she knew the true layout. Anyone else who tried to navigate it would become lost in oblivion._

Underneath the writing was a map of Gummi Space, showing where the Land of Departure—now Castle Oblivion—used to be. Which was how he'd been able to avoid getting eliminated for treason. Demyx had no clue who "Eraqus" Terra" and "Aqua" were, but they seemed important. In fact, he was forever grateful that Axel had kept his big mouth shut about the page from the library. If the Superior found out…well, let's just say that Disney castle wouldn't remain untouched for much longer.

Sighing, Demyx rubbed his temples, watching as the sheet of paper disappeared from the table and back to it's respective book. He was confused and more than a little freaked out, that's why he was here. He _needed_ answers, and the library had helped him before…

He just didn't know if he _wanted_ the answers.

It was stupid, really. So his name had been on Santa's nice list. Big deal.

Recon of Halloween Town proved that the names of Nobodies didn't appear on either of the lists. He knew, he'd been on that mission with Zexion.

If he was on that list, that meant he existed…in some form.

He remembered Zexion going on and on to about how Santa's list was very low-grade magic. And even the slightest bit of human existence would register. That way it insured that no one would be left out of Christmas. So, really, his name being there could mean nothing at all.

So why did he feel so damn _hopeful_? He shouldn't be able to feel anything at all!

Dropping his head to the table with a dull, "thunk" he groaned.

He just wanted to know…

No sooner did the thought cross his mind then a book materialized under his forehead. Picking himself off the table, he watched as the book opened to a page labeled _Nobodies_.

Ugh. Like he didn't know _that_ story.

_Nobodies are born when a heart is overcome by darkness and becomes a Heartless. The empty shell left behind when the heart is gone—the body and the soul—gives the Nobody life. The stronger the will, the more human the Nobodies form, the stronger the Nobody. All Nobodies vanish from the Realm of Light when created and are born in worlds in between light and darkness. However, because they do no have hearts, they are shunned from both light and darkness._

Well that was unhelpful. He knew that already! It did give him a smidge of comfort though, his Somebody must have had a strong will in order for him to be there today. Even though he was not commended for his strength in the Organization, (he wasn't commended for anything really) he still existed in the same way the rest of them did, which counted for something…they hadn't kicked him out yet, right?

Organization XIII saved Demyx from himself. It's _terrifying_ waking up and barely remember anything. Being 19 years old and having nearly no past to look back on. It's enough to make anyone want to end their existence. The Organization, despite how screwed up some of the members are, is like a family. A sick, twisted family whose members only got along once in a while, but a family none the less. They were all in the same predicament, so they stuck together. And really, all they wanted was to become whole…to be real again. Why was that so horrible? If you had something taken from you, wouldn't you want it back? Unless they had hearts, they would never be accepted, but how could you tell that they didn't have hearts?

Everyone in the Organization had his or her own rant about being a Nobody; this was his.

Take him out of the black cloak and gloves and put him in regular street attire. Say he swore he'd never use his abilities ever again. Then put him next to a regular guy. Hell, put him next to the freaking Keyblade Master if you want. What made them different? What was it about him that would make people shy away…that would clue them in that he wasn't just like them? He needed to breathe to continue existing. If you cut him, he still bled. He got tired and needed sleep at the end of the day. He didn't need to consume flesh or drink blood to survive, so what? What was it besides his lack of heart that made him existing so _wrong_?

And another thing…

How could being a Nobody be such a bad thing? If his Somebody's will to live had been so great that Demyx was standing here now, what made that an abomination instead of a second chance at life? He could go to worlds in the Realm of Light. He wasn't a vampire; he wouldn't burst into flames. If he never joined Organization XIII, if he just accepted what happened to him and moved on, lived life like a normal person what would make him inferior to anyone around him? Nothing. That's why he didn't understand. So he didn't have a heart. He still felt things. He got angry; he got depressed, he was pretty sure he was falling for the Keyblade Master's girlfriend for Gods sake so what was the big deal? Why couldn't people like Sora, and King Mickey just leave him be?

He angrily swiped the book off the table. It was complete and utter _bullshit_.

When the book fell, the page turned and Demyx noticed a hastily scrawled note on the back of the page.

_Nobodies do not exist; but can they be believed in?_

Heart pounding, Demyx gripped the book so hard his knuckles were white.

"Tell me more." He said in a harsh whisper.

The book quivered in his hand and he released it. It flipped to the last page and on the back cover, another note in the same handwriting had been written.

_Santa Claus does not exist. But children believe in him; and so he is. _

_Therefore if Nobodies do not exist; but someone believes in them, wouldn't they be?_

_A prince does not exist. A Beast must love, and be loved in return in order to become a prince. The prince will then exist. _

_Therefore if a Somebody does not exist, Yet a Nobody loves and is loved in return, wouldn't the Somebody then exist?_

_Everyone has the ability of flight, however, one must believe they can fly._

_And have a spark to get them started; like pixie dust._

_Therefore, if every Nobody has the potential to be real, and they believe that they can,_

_Maybe all they need is the right spark?_

The book flew out of his hands and back to the shelf, another book, a old and battered notebook, flew off the top of the tallest shelf in a cloud of dust and made it's way over to Demyx. It opened to the first page, and Demyx began to read.

_My name is of no importance. But this information is. It needs to be seen, even though some might not want it to._

_Nobodies are essentially myths. If something does not exist, then it is a myth, a story. Nobodies are special because they embody myths. If you believe in a myth then it is real. _

_Simple._

_I believed. A mother's love for her son does not die out just because he is gone._

_He was attacked by the Heartless. He was lost. That's what they told me._

_Imagine my surprise when I saw him again, my son, wandering our world._

_The resemblance wasn't perfect, but it was uncanny. He had the same face, the same mannerisms, the same voice._

_He was my son. I knew. How could I not? I'm his mother after all._

_I talked to him. Every day, I talked to him. He knew what he was. He managed to piece it together through what was left of his memory. _

_I told him he was my son. He said it didn't matter because he didn't exist._

_But I told him he did. He did exist and he would always exist in my heart. I remembered him. I believed in him, and I wasn't letting go._

_Then his heart began to beat._

_I don't have much time. We have to get away, go where no one knows us, but I can't leave without telling what I know._

_It doesn't work with just anyone. I've come across other Nobodies in my time and I've tried to bring them back, but it doesn't work. There needs to be a connection. Not necessarily from before they lost their hearts, but a connection none the less._

_I think it's because of who I am, as well. _

_They say my heart is strong because of what I do. They say that's why I was chosen in the first place. I don't know If I believe that. Could my heart be strong enough to give life back to another? I can't know for sure, no one else has ever tried to do this before._

_I need to leave. My husband is waiting and it's not safe here anymore. I'm sending this notebook to The Great Library. It will be safe there. Only those in need of this solution will be able to find it. Whether you are someone who wants to help a Nobody, or you're a Nobody yourself. I wish you luck._

_-The Key's Keeper_

If Demyx had a heart, it would have froze at the signature. The Key's Keeper.

Her heart was strong because of what she does…

She was chosen….

_Holy…_

Putting the tattered book aside, Demyx spoke to the Library,

"I need to know about Protectors. Please." His voice sounded desperate to his own ears.

Another very thin book flew towards him and opened to a page with the heading ORIGINS.

_Not much is known about the topic of Keyblade Master's protectors. What is known is that every person who is chosen to wield a Keyblade has one. They are usually young women, perhaps because of the female gender's inborn trait to protect and shelter. Protectors are chosen immediately when the Keyblade wielder first gets possession of a Keyblade. They are given their own form of the Keyblade, one that mimics the appearance of the Master's. They are also given the power to sense surrounding danger and the darkness in others._

_It is the Protector's responsibility to keep the Keyblade Master from harm. Failure to do so results in harsh punishment. The body of the Protector becomes overwhelmed with discomfort until they go to the Master's aid._

_If the Keyblade Master is killed in battle, or if they cease to exist, The Protector will die as well, unless the Master had last wishes they wanted their Protector to fulfill, in which they would stay alive until those wishes are carried out. _

_If the Protector dies in battle, a new one is not chosen. _

_The names of most past protectors were lost in The Keyblade War. __The most well known Protectors are the ones of Master Eraqus's three students, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus._

_Leigh, Protector of Terra, sacrificed her heart and fell to darkness when he did. She perished when she refused to aid him in the battle between him and Eraqus. Although Terra emerged victorious, Leigh's refusal caused her body to turn against her. She died before the battle was over. It is noted, here that whichever side the Keyblade Master chooses, light or darkness, determines the fate of the Protector as well._

_Violet, Protector of Aqua was Aqua's younger sister. The two were separated at birth and reunited when the younger was named her Protector. Violet was killed in the battle between Aqua and Braig. _

_Tameron, Protector of Ventus, is said to have perished when he lost his heart, however there have been unconfirmed sightings of her in several different worlds. Her true fate is unknown._

_An issue brought to question about protectors is the strength that they posses. For them to be able to fall to darkness simply if the Keyblade Master chooses to do so and survive is no easy feat. The strength of the Protector's heart may be a deciding factor that chooses them in the first place. Because they are able to go on and perform deeds for the Keyblade Master they protect after they have perished (which would mean the Protector should have perished as well) it can be argued that the Protector's heart has the strength of their own and the Keyblade Master's together._

The last line in the book would be forever burned in Demyx's mind.

_The Protector's heart has the strength of their own and the Keyblade Master's together._

It all added up. If Protector's had the equivalent of two hearts inside them, it would make sense that they could give the power of one heart to a Nobody, thus making them real. Like the woman had done with her son.

Head spinning, Demyx watched as the notebook and the origins book went back to their original places.

If he was starting to exist, than it was because Katy was believing in him. In her head, he was regarded as a normal human being. A Somebody.

He remembered what she said to him back at the Coliseum. Just before he left.

"_I know it doesn't…change things, but in a different scenario, I mean if I wasn't…who I was. I could definitely see myself with you. And I'm not just saying that. You're a great guy."_

_"Even if I was still a Nobody?" _

_"Even if you were still a Nobody." _

That must have been when it started. That was why he couldn't stay away. In that moment, he felt _whole_. And now he knew why.

But…

Could he do this to her? Now that he knew what was going on, every time he would go to her, he'd be _using_ her. Using her heart for his own gain. It sounded evil in his head, imagine when she found out and spoke it out loud.

And yet…

He couldn't just forget about this. He had an honest-to-God way of getting a heart; one that didn't require hurting anyone. He wasn't about to tell the Organization…Katy was the only Protector they knew about, they'd kidnap her. And if she was away from Sora, she'd end up like the other three. Dead.

Speaking of the Organization…

He had to get back. He'd been here too long already. Making a dark corridor, he went back to his room at The Castle That Never Was. Flopping down on his bed, he closed his eyes, head swimming with hearts and Keyblades and death. He thought of his own, well his Sombody's mother. He didn't remember her, but he couldn't imagine how she must've felt when her son just didn't come home one day. Did she know what happened? Was she even alive, or did she turn into a Heartless too?

If he did somehow get his heart back, would he remember her? His old life? Would he become who he used to be, or stay who he was?

His mind turned to the three former protectors.

Did Terra care that he caused Leigh's death?

Did Violet resent her sister for her own death?

Was Tameron really still alive?

He drifted off to sleep and he dreamed. Nightmares of a redhead writhing in pain, screaming for help that came too late, of violet eyes that slowly lost their life forever, and of a blonde girl turning to face him in the darkness

"_Ven?"_

* * *

**A/N: So? I've been brainstorming these past few chapter-less days, and this is what I came up with. Let me know what you think!**


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